Baseball notebook: Jimenez needs a nap

No one told Ubaldo Jimenez he’d have trouble sleeping the night after throwing a no-hitter.

Who on the Colorado Rockies could have warned him?

There was no one to prepare Jimenez for what would come after allowing no hits in Saturday night’s 4-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.

No other pitcher in the Rockies’ 18-year history has thrown a no-hitter.

Jimenez said Sunday he slept only about two hours and in his groggy state wondered if the no-hitter really happened.

“It was like a wonderful dream I was having,” Jimenez said. “If it was reality or a dream, it was wonderful.”

Finally, about 6:30 Sunday morning, Jimenez took to the streets of Atlanta and ran six miles, a mile or two longer than his normal ritual the day after his starts.

The run cleared his mind. He hadn’t caught up on his sleep when he returned to Turner Field a few hours later. He was still savoring his no-hitter.

Jimenez is 3-0 with a 1.29 ERA. He already had six losses before his third win last season. He gained momentum with a 9-3 second half of the 2009 season to finish 15-12 with a 3.47 ERA – the lowest for any starting pitcher in team history.

The Rockies’ first no-hitter came in the team’s 2,703rd game. Colorado manager Jim Tracy said “there was a strong realization” in the Rockies’ clubhouse that Jimenez is capable of throwing more no-hitters.

Tracy said Jimenez “may take another three or four of them into the seventh inning, eighth inning.”

Jimenez threw a major league-high 128 pitches. Tracy said the high pitch count was his only concern.

“We had the bullpen ready to go, ready in the eighth and ready in the ninth,” Tracy said Sunday. “If they’d gotten a hit, I was going to take him out.”

Jimenez pitched the first no-hitter in the majors since Mark Buehrle tossed a perfect game against Tampa Bay on July 23, 2009.

Jimenez said he’ll be rested by his scheduled start against the Nationals on Thursday.

“I’ll sleep tonight for sure,” he said.

Clearing the bases

San Francisco Giants center fielder Aaron Rowand was placed on the 15-day disabled list, two days after a fastball to his head from the Dodgers’ Vicente Padilla left him with two small fractures in his left cheekbone and a mild concussion. … The Dodgers optioned struggling reliever Russ Ortiz to Triple-A Albuquerque and promoted right-hander Jon Link from the team’s top farm club.