August 20, 2008 6:45 PM

Taveras still No. 2 -- Rockies

Rockies manager Clint Hurdle likes what he has seen of late with CF Willy Taveras hitting second.

Hurdle gave Clint Barmes, who has been hitting leadoff, the night off Wednesday, but put Omar Quintanilla, who will play second in place of Barmes, in the lead off spot, keeping Taveras hitting second.

Taveras is 7-for-16 with five stolen bases in the four wins the Rockies have put togehter to open the road trip. He is 9-for-22 in his five starts hitting second. He has a career .344 on-base percentate hittingsecond compared to .324 in the leadoff spot.

C YORVIT TORREALBA is in the starting lineup on back-to-back days for the second time since July 3, and only the third time since June 20. Torrealba gets the start because C Chris Iannetta has a bruised left foot. Iannetta had x-rays taken Wednesday and they were negative. He should be back in the lineup in the next day or so.

Torrealba also started on Aug. 7-Aug. 8, and July 2-3.

FYI: BRAD HAWPE and Matt Holliday rank 1-02 in total bases since the all-Star break. Holliday has 84. Hawpe has 80. Matt Kemp of th eDodgers and ryan Ludwick of St. Louis each ahve 76.

THE LINEUPS

ROCKIES
2B Omar Quintanilla (lh)
CF Willy Taveras (rh)
LF Matt Holliday (rh)
RF Brad Hawpe (lh)
1B Garrett Atkins (rh)
3B Ian Stewart (lh)
SS Troy Tulowitzki (rh)
C Yorvit Torrealba (rh)
LHP Jeff Francis (lh)

DODGERS
CF Juan Pierre (lh)
RF Matt Kemp (rh)
2B Jeff Kent (rh)
LF Manny Ramirez (rh)
SS Nomar Garciaparra (rh)
1B Casey Blake (rh)
C Russell Martin (rh)
C Danny Ardoin (rh)
RHP Chad Billingsley (rh)

Posted by Tracy Ringolsby at 6:45 PM | Comments (0)