Tuesday, October 27

CHICAGO – Almost counterintuitively, being in the Major Leagues has made preparation a more efficient proposition for the Rockies’ Troy Johnston.

Until his 44-game debut with the Marlins late last season, Johnston, 28, was a productive Minor Leaguer without a spot. The Rockies claimed him off waivers after last season. Making the squad out of Spring Training put the studious Johnston in position to take advantage of copious amounts of scouting information.

“Sometimes, hitting in Double-A and Triple-A is actually harder than hitting in the big leagues – not because of the lights, not because of the pressure,” Johnston said. “But you find a guy in Triple-A and you’ll have a scouting report like, ‘He’s a four-seam/curveball guy. But he just got sent down from the big leagues, and now he’s a sinker/slider guy' – and my whole scouting report is off. I don’t even know what I’m looking for. 

“Here in the big leagues, a lot of guys stick to their plans. A lot of guys have a purpose.”

Following Tuesday night's 5-2 win over the Cubs, Johnston ranks fifth in the National League with a .312 batting average, is tied for first with 21 doubles and sits 11th with a .373 on-base percentage. 

But Johnston has set out to add some twists to his own scouting report.

Johnston loves hitting breaking balls – .329 with a .605 slugging percentage, all three of his homers and 12 of his doubles going into Tuesday. 

But Johnston’s preference for breaking pitches is no secret. Pitchers know all about it.

“It was about the first week in May and I went over to Amir [Mamdani, Rockies director of baseball operations] and said, ‘Hey, I feel I’m getting a lot of fastballs – I wonder if that’s true,’” Johnston said.

According to Statcast, from the opening of the season through May 7, Johnston faced MLB’s 13th-highest rate of four-seam fastballs, 39.2 percent. The rate May 8 through Monday was  slightly higher – 40.3 percent (minimum 400 total pitches seen).

Johnston’s success rate against four-seamers has dropped – .317 in 36 at-bats through May 7; .185 and no extra-base hits in 27 at-bats May 8 through Monday.

Part of it is Johnston is being trusted more often against left-handed pitching, which is an ongoing adjustment. But Johnston has fouled off enough quality fastballs to force pitchers to use breaking balls.

At the same time that he hit .185 on fastballs, he sizzled at .385 against breaking pitches.

So Johnston continues to search to put himself in position to hit the fastball, while making sure to be on the breaking pitch. And he’s trying to keep the numbers in perspective.

“I have a line that I would tell guys, especially young guys in Triple-A,” he said. “I said, 'You only need probably eight good weeks out of the whole year, and you’re going to have a great year.'

“Honestly, it’s hard not to look at those numbers, especially because everything is so accessible — at your fingertips and up on the board.”

So far, Johnston has shown the ability to digest all of the information and hit accordingly.

July 31 is Grateful Dead night at Coors. It starts with a pregame concert, and there are ticket packages available for that night’s game against the Royals. For more information, click here.

Everything about righty Tomoyuki Sugano’s last start felt bad – except for the result.

Dealing with 101-degree heat and desert dryness against the Athletics on Sunday in Las Vegas, Sugano pitched through illness for five innings and gave up eight runs on nine hits. The Rockies won, 23-9, and Sugano received the pitching decision.

“Obviously, there was the heat and the environment,” Sugano said through interpreter Yuto Sakurai. “But more than anything, I was behind in counts a lot of times, and that led to giving up runs.

“I feel a lot better now. But pitching there, I felt a different type of fatigue from my other starts. The day after I pitched, I had a headache.”

Had the Rockies not lost a late lead in Monday’s 5-4 loss to the Cubs, Sugano would have deserved a nod. The Rockies had used multiple relievers while losing the first two games of the series. Sugano hung in long enough with a big lead that the Rockies had their best relievers available in Chicago, even though they struggled on Monday.

“As a starting pitcher, my minimal responsibility is to get through five,” Sugano said. “I gave up a ton of runs, but at the end of the day, I was able to help the team. I take it as a positive.”

In his first season as the Rockies’ regular third baseman, Kyle Karros is quickly enhancing his defensive reputation. Following Tuesday night’s game at Wrigley Field, Karros was tied with Arizona’s Nolan Arenado, Kansas City’s Maikel Garcia, San Diego’s Manny Machado and the Dodgers’ Max Muncy for second in MLB Statcast Outs Above Average at the position with 4. Cleveland’s José Ramírez was the leader at six.

“He’s very talented over there – really good for us,” manager Warren Schaeffer said. “The sky’s the limit for his defense.”

When righty Michael Lorenzen struggled at the start of the season, he vowed not to panic – and stuck with that plan. So don’t expect him to become euphoric after his last two starts. Each time, he held the Cubs to one run in five innings.

Lorenzen had gone away from the full windup earlier in the season, but returning to it brought success. An extra twist in the direction of second base helped put him in position to throw to the proper location.

But Lorenzen understands that it takes work to keep such a small adjustment exactly where he needs it.

“We’ll continue to do that for sure, try to build off that, try to get more consistent with it,” Lorenzen said. “There’s definitely a sweet spot. This game is brutal. Eventually, I’ll be doing a 360 out there because I’m not trying to overdo it.

“That’s going to be our job between every outing, making sure I’m not overdoing it or underdoing it.”

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