SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Byung-Hyun Kim and Josh Fogg, pitching on vastly different stages, continued their quests Friday to become the Rockies fifth starter. Fogg did just fine, which can't be said of Kim.

He's being shopped by the Rockies and did nothing to enhance his trade value as he allowed eight runs in 4 2/3 innings, including six in the second, against the San Francisco Giants at Scottsdale Stadium before a crowd of 11,939.

Kim threw 92 pitches, 59 for strikes in the Rockies 11-7 loss to the Giants and received a tongue lashing in the clubhouse from catcher Yorvit Torrealba after leaving the game.

Torrealba simply shook his head when asked whether he and Kim were in sync during the game.

"It was all right," Torrealba said. "There were a couple pitches left around the middle. The ball that Barry (Bonds) hit (for a two-run homer with two out in the second) was a fastball up. He get it down, maybe he get a ground ball. Who knows?"

Asked then whether he and Kim were locking horns all afternoon, Torrealba smiled and said, "No comment on that."

Fogg, meanwhile, pitched for Double-A Tulsa against Triple-A Colorado Springs as the Rockies minor leaguers held a camp day in Tucson. He allowed three hits and two runs in five innings. Fogg threw 74 pitches and allowed one homer and one walk with six strikeouts.

Complicating any trade of Kim is his guaranteed $2.5 million contract. He allowed a leadoff homer to Randy Winn, one of three left-handed hitters who hurt Kim. Omar Vizquel got out in front on a good changeup in the second but poked it down the right-field line for a three-run triple. Earlier in that inning, Bonds homered to right-center on a high fastball.

"My slider wasn't good," Kim said. "I have to throw only fastballs, so it was a little bit harder."

Torrealba said, "There were a few sliders that were kind of a get-me-over slider, flat. But after the first two innings he was throwing the ball well."

Kim did settle in and retired six consecutive batters, starting with Ray Durham to end the second before a two-out double by Winn, who had three hits against Kim.

After giving up a two-out double in the fifth to Rich Aurilia followed by a run-scoring single by Bengie Molina, the workday ended for Kim.

"I thought the slider started coming into play later on, not initially," pitching coach Bob Apodaca said. "I thought he had a little extra on his fastball, and that may have been his undoing in the first and second inning in that he felt so good, most of his pitches were of the elevated variety."

Left-handed hitters batted .325 against the sidearming Kim last year, 60 points higher than righties. But the latter have been able to look for Kim's fastball and slider on the outer portion of the plate, a reason the Rockies have stressed to Kim the need to use his two- and four-seam fastballs inside on right-handed hitters.

Apodaca said Kim had success inside against several of the Giants right-handed hitters, maybe not with a "putaway pitch" but with an inside pitch that opened the outer half of the plate to set up one where Kim could finish off a right-handed hitter.

"We've asked him to expand his strengths," Apodaca said, "have the ability to use his fastballs in different locations. It's not something that's coming naturally to him right how. So when he first sees the suggestion, I'm sure it's taken some initiative on his part to agree to it. It's a work in progress. It's not going to come overnight. He's pitched a certain way his entire career."

That career includes two seasons with the Rockies, two seasons in which Kim has gone 13-24 in 67 games, including 49 starts. If he is to have a third season with them, Kim will have to work inside more often and more effectively against right-handed hitters.

"It's not like we're asking him to live in there," Apodaca said. "It's just going in at the appropriate time. It's just not coming easy to him right now."

Hear, ye

Reed Saunders, a 25-year-old arena announcer for the Colorado Eagles minor league hockey team, was selected Friday as the new public address announcer at Coors Field.

Saunders, a Colorado State graduate from Westminster, replaces Alan Roach, who had been the announcer for Rockies home games since the team began play in 1993.

Tryouts for the position began with more than 250 applicants and eventually was reduced to the final three - Saunders; Jim Hudson, 37, of Englewood, and Conor McGahey, 22, of Denver.

Today's game

Rockies (Aaron Cook) vs. San Francisco (Brad Hennessey), 2:05 p.m. MDT at Hi Corbett Field (FSN Rocky Mountain; KOA-AM 850).

etkinj@RockyMountainNews.com

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