The Orioles today announced that Leo Mazzone, the club’s pitching coach for the last two years, will not return for the 2008 season.

“I spoke with Leo today and told him I appreciated his efforts here,” said Manager Dave Trembley.  “Moving forward, I felt that we would be better served with someone else working with our young staff and that it was in his best interests and our best interests to give him an opportunity to look elsewhere now.”

Maybe Leo will re-join the Braves. Think Roger McDowell is looking over his shoulder???

Jeff Francis pitched 6 2/3 strong innings, and Brad Hawpe reached base 3 times and drove in 2 runs as the Rockies cruised to a 5-1 win over the Diamondbacks.

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E  Rockies  0 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 5 8 0  Diamondbacks  1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 9 1
W: J. Francis (W, 1-0); L: B. Webb (L, 0-1)
HR: None.

Game Notes

- Brad Hawpe has knocked in 10 runs in his last seven games against the Diamondbacks dating back to the regular season...Brad is now hitting .375 (15-for-40) with four home runs and 15 RBI in his career against Brandon Webb.

- Jeff Francis improved to 4-0 with a 1.35 ERA (33.1ip/5er) this year against the Diamondbacks at Chase Field...He is now 8-2 in his last 11 starts (including the postseason) on the road.

- Tonight’s win extended Colorado’s winning streak on the road to nine games dating back to the regular season...The club’s last loss away from Coors Field occurred on September 13 in Philadelphia.

Recapping the Game in Quotes

Q. Your team showed some great patience in terms of batting against Webb and he kind of thrives on aggressive hitters, was that part of the game plan, was just not to chase anything as much as --

CLINT HURDLE: We didn't want to fire early unless we felt confident it was something we could square up. We talked to Alan Cockrell, and I thought one of the keys for us tonight would be the ability to hit with two strikes. We had to be comfortable with hitting with two strikes. He gets such dynamic movement. There's no other way to recreate it. We have seen him a number of times. And, you know, patience, not just in baseball, but in a lot of different areas, usually has a tendency to work to your advantage. You can't just stand up there and take things because he can paint and he can pitch.

Q. Why do you think Francis has been so successful against the Diamondbacks, especially here?

CLINT HURDLE: Well, he's seen a lot of their hitters. He's had good command, quite often when he's pitched against them. This ballpark has been a good place for him. And, again, he's got a slow heartbeat out there. He's got a slow heartbeat. He doesn't get too excited. He can change speeds. That's probably a key as much as anything.

Q. Offensively it would seem like Stephen would be the guy you would want up in those situations. Just talk a little bit about the lack of execution when it comes offensively and how that haunted you guys?

BOB MELVIN: We had some situations, obviously had some situations where we could have done some damage and we didn't. Certain days we have. Today we just didn't get it done and they did. Hawpe's hit was big. We had a situation where with a base hit we could have knocked a couple in. So they were just more opportunistic today in their at-bats when it really counted.

Notes and quotes courtesy of MLB