Rockies Review: May 6, 2006 - Jennings spins gem in final year before pivotal trade

It’s not often the Colorado Rockies trade a player at the height of his value.

While Troy Tulowitzki was notably traded to the Toronto Blue Jays at age 30, it followed three consecutive seasons of missing substantial time on the injured list and over $100M remaining on his contract made him less than a top commodity.

Jason Jennings, the 2002 National League Rookie of the Year, was about to become one of the few traded at peak value following a fantastic 2006 season that still goes down as a top 10 all-time for purple pitchers.

As part of that successful campaign (5.0 bWAR, seventh-best), Jennings tossed a complete game shutout at Coors Field against his future employer in Colorado’s 5-0 win over Houston.

Scattering seven hits –  including doubles by Eric Munson and Preston Wilson, who he’d strike out twice apiece – Jennings walked only one and K’d nine in his first complete game shutout since his major league debut.

Jennings would eventually spin another CGSO later in the month and set the record for most (3) in franchise history until Ubaldo Jiménez would tie the mark in 2011.

Much like the Matt Holliday trade in the 2008-09 offseason that returned a trio of players that contributed to the organization with varied success (Carlos González, Huston Street and Greg Smith), Jennings would actually become the first significant player to be traded at the peak of his worth.

On December 12, 2006, he was dealt to the Astros with Miguel Asencio for Willy Taveras, Jason Hirsch and Taylor Buchholz, three players that would factor into the memorable 2007 season.

Unhappy Times

Colorado squeezed out three runs on three hits against John Smoltz and the eventual NL West champ Atlanta, but lose 13-3.

This defeat in 1993 began a streak that would continue until May 22, 1994, a span of 16 consecutive losses, the most to one club in franchise history. It also marks the start of the third-worst homestand (1-7) in Colorado’s 27 season.

Steve Avery went all nine frames for Atlanta in 1994 during a 4-1 win over the Rockies to begin a 1-7 road trip that extends to series against the Florida Marlins and Cincinnati Reds.

Arizona swept Colorado at Coors Field in a doubleheader on this day in 2015, 13-7 and 5-1. Drew Stubbs notches a pinch hit homer in game one and the duo of Charlie Blackmon (3-for-9) and Justin Morneau (4-for-9) are the only record a hit in both.

Happier Times

With one swing of the bat in the sixth inning from the reigning NL MVP, Larry Walker ties the game with a pinch hit grand slam in 1998, but its not enough as the Philadelphia Phillies score one in the ninth off Jerry Dipoto and one in the tenth to walk-off against Chuck McElroy.

In his final season in the majors and less than a month from his 300th win, Randy Johnson surrenders back-to-back home runs to the unlikely duo of Matt Murton and Yorvit Torrealba during the Rockies 11-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants.

Fun Fact

John Vander Wal and Mike Kingery each slug a pinch hit home run as the Rockies lose 17-11 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Roberto Mejia and Kingery swat the first back-to-back homer in Coors Field history on this date in 1995.

On This Day In Baseball History

In 1998, a 20-year-old rookie for the Chicago Cubs ties the major league record with 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game during a one-hitter against the Houston Astros. Kerry Wood ties the record set by Roger Clemens in 1986 and 1996 with the Boston Red Sox and breaks the National League record of 19 strikeouts held by David Cone and Hall of Famers Steve Carlton and Tom Seaver.