DENVER (AP) -Slumping shortstop Troy Tulowitzki returned to the Colorado Rockies’ lineup Wednesday night but was bumped from second in the batting order to seventh.
Manager Clint Hurdle, who sat Tulowitzki for the first six innings of the Rockies’ 8-6 loss to Philadelphia on Wednesday night, hopes that moving his 23-year-old star to seventh will help Tulowitzki find his stroke.
“Just get him down there because it’s a place he’s been comfortable at and done well there. Maybe a little less pressure on him,” Hurdle said. “He has some barrel in his bat and he could catch some people napping there and do some damage.”
Second baseman Clint Barmes hit in the No. 2 spot against the Chicago Cubs on Wednesday night.
Tulowitzki, runner-up for NL Rookie of the Year last season, entered the game mired in a 1-for-17 slump that had dropped his batting average to .163.
Tulowitzki had started driving the ball better last week before going back into a deep funk at the plate.
“I definitely need to work through some things, but I’ll get there. It might take some time, but I’ll get there,” Tulowitzki said.
Tulowitzki signed a $31 million, six-year deal over the winter after his sensational rookie season in which he led the Rockies to their first World Series. He had a solid spring training but struggled once the season began, collecting just 13 hits in his first 80 at-bats.
Tulowitzki also got off to a slow start last April but quickly recovered and put together one of the best seasons by a rookie shortstop in major league history, batting .291 with 24 homers and 99 RBIs while leading all shortstops in fielding.
He lost 12 pounds in the offseason, hoping that with only 193 pounds on his 6-foot-3 frame that he’d be able to get to more groundballs and also be fleeter on the basepaths.
Hurdle has no plans to replace struggling closer Manny Corpas, another second-year star who signed a big contract over the winter. Corpas has blown three saves in seven chances so far after converting 19-of-20 once he supplanted Brian Fuentes midway through last season.
“His command hasn’t been what it should. More often than not his ball ends up down,” Hurdle said. “He is caught up in the same thing we’re all caught up in. We’re not playing clean baseball. He’s not making enough clean pitches with the consistency he’s grown accustomed to.”
Unlike Tulowitzki, Corpas won’t get a breather.
“If it gets to the point where he’s not closing off games with the success that we think he should, then we’ll think about talking about a change,” Hurdle said. “But right now we’ve got a lot of different wheels spinning.”
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