DENVER _ Pete Mackanin stepped onto Coors Field and raised his right arm before Pat Valaika's foot touched home plate. The manager wanted a new pitcher. By employing one of the youngest starting rotations in baseball, the Phillies know they are destined for nights like these. They will separate who belongs and who does not.
This ballpark is a good barometer.
Nick Pivetta, in an 8-5 loss to the potent Rockies, threw 29 pitches before he recorded his first out. He did not survive the third inning; Valaika ended the rookie right-hander's night with a 407-foot shot to left field.
He has a 5.89 ERA in his first 16 major league starts, which have totaled 84 innings. There is no questioning the promise of Pivetta's fastball, but he needed more than that against Colorado's imposing lineup. The first three Rockies reached on a walk, a hit batter, and a single. They all scored. Tommy Joseph committed a ruinous error. Pivetta threw 42 pitches in the first inning.
The rest of the game was reduced to pebble hunting. Jorge Alfaro started behind the plate and wore his dark blue IronPigs equipment. The 24-year-old prospect singled in his first two at-bats to equal his major league hit total from his brief audition last September.
"I wanted to get a look at him," Mackanin said. "It's good for those guys to get up here and play instead of waiting to play."
Alfaro could return to the minors as soon as Monday or Tuesday; Andrew Knapp's bruised right hand felt and looked better Saturday. Knapp said he was regaining grip strength.
Daniel Nava, the 34-year-old outfielder who has resurrected his career, fell a double shy of the cycle. Inserted into the lineup to replace an injured Aaron Altherr, Nava clobbered a three-run homer in the eighth inning.
But no one made a better impression than Mark Leiter Jr., a 22nd-round pick from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Asked to pitch in a mop-up role, Leiter dominated Colorado's hitters.
He struck out nine of the 15 batters he faced. Those nine strikeouts were the most for a Phillies reliever in 47 years, since Lowell Palmer struck out 10 in 1970. Yes, the game was lopsided when Leiter entered. But this is Coors Field and the Rockies feature a dangerous group of hitters. Leiter, 26, attacked.
The rookie threw 52 pitches and 40 were strikes. The Rockies whiffed at 13 of his pitches. He used six different types of pitches. He struck out all-star outfielder Charlie Blackmon twice. Former batting champion D.J. LeMahieu and MVP candidate Nolan Arenado were victims, too.
Leiter's 41/3 impressive innings were his way of showing he belongs here. Pivetta, a more touted pitcher, has work to do.
