Rockies can learn from how Torre handles pitchers

LOS ANGELES — Dodgers manager Joe Torre is old school.

He grew up playing alongside the likes of Lew Burdette, Warren Spahn, Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman.

And, as a manager, he hasn’t forgotten what those men of durability taught him.

At age 68, and in his 29th managerial season, Torre still hasn’t learned to pamper pitchers.

Not even closers.

And he provided a primer for the Rockies in the Dodgers’ 4-3, come-from-behind victory at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

His team was silenced for six innings, but trailing 3-0, it came up with a four-run seventh inning. Torre wasn’t going to let that lead get away, if he could help it.

So in the top of the eighth, after Ryan Spilborghs greeted Hong Chih-Kuo with a double, and Garrett Atkins and Brad Hawpe worked Kuo for walks to load the bases, Torre didn’t hesitate. He called for closer Jonathan Broxton and asked him to get the final five outs.

Mission accomplished.

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle, meanwhile, searches for three outs from his closers, and after faliling to get that from Huston Street in the opening days of 2009, he announced Friday he’s turning to Manny Corpas to re-establish his ninth-inning abilities.

Then Torre took a promising young arm — Broxton’s fastball was hitting 99 mph, according to the Dodger Stadium scoreboard — and got extended protection.

And Broxton is certainly making believers out of the folks in Los Angeles.

Against the Rockies, he struck out four of the five batters he faced — Troy Tulowitzki and Chris Iannetta to leave the bases loaded in the eighth — and then, after Clint Barmes’ groundout to open the ninth, Ian Stewart and Dexter Fowler for the final two outs in the game.

Surprised? Don’t be. It’s Torre’s way.

Most managers have fallen into the save-the-closer-for-the ninth mentality.

Not Torre. Four of the 14 saves Broxton earned last year, after assuming the closer role for the Dodgers, required him to get more than three outs. And it’s not something new for Torre.

Twelve years he managed the Yankees, the final 11 with Mariano Rivera as closer. And 124 times he asked Rivera to come into a game in the eighth inning with a save on the line. Rivera converted 95 of the opportunities, including all 10 in 2007, Torre’s last year with the Yankees, and 42 of 50 in Torre’s last six years in the Bronx.

Broxton certainly didn’t seem the least bit bothered by it. His fastball was still ranging from 95 to 99 mph when he struck out Fowler to end the game, extending the Dodgers’ winning streak to six games. Manny Ramirez has only one RBI in the streak — a single during Friday’s rally. Broxton, however, has three saves.

Will Broxton hold up with the extra demands? Time will tell. Torre is going to give him the chance to find out.

But, then, what is Torre’s alternative? When Broxton does stumble, Torre’s going to stick with him because the other option doesn’t exist.

Hurdle, meanwhile, at least has options, and he has now decided that the best hope right now is Corpas. Corpas was the closer the final three months of 2007, a key part of the only National League pennant in Rockies history.

What Hurdle saw that bothered him is that Street, in his past three appearances as the closer, did not have the aggressiveness. He seemingly hesitated to challenge hitters in Chicago on Wednesday, after Derrek Lee’s leadoff home run in the ninth. He faced two more batters, walking one and giving up a single to the other.

So while Broxton was overpowering the Rockies hitters to finish off Friday’s game, Hurdle at least could take satisfaction out of the strong effort of Jorge De La Rosa, who bent plenty but didn’t break, and Street, who got a chance to take a deep breath and then worked an impressive eighth against the Dodgers.

De La Rosa dealt with adversity in shutting down the Dodgers. He struck out five, three to end an inning with runners in scoring postiion. He held the Dodgers hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring postiion.

Street, meanwhile, didn’t earn a save, but he might have taken a step toward salvation of his — and the Rockies’ — season. It was a reinforcement of what the Rockies saw from Street during spring training, a sign that even with his recent struggles, Street hasn’t lost the ability to go at hitters and get outs.

There was no proclamation that all that ailed Street had been cured, but there was a definite feeling the right-hander had accomplished something with his relatively easy inning of work.

Nobody, however, put the exclamation point on the evening like Broxton did.

Not only did he retire all six batters he faced, striking out five, but it only took him 23 pitches, 17 for strikes, to get it done.

No wonder Torre is so comfortable with the idea of Broxton working a little extra to get his saves. With that kind of pitch count, it’s not like Broxton wore himself out, even if he did wear out the Rockies’ bats.

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