You can forgive dozens of members of the Colorado Rockies if they simultaneously smashed their palms against their foreheads while watching Franklin Morales deal for the Red Sox on Sunday night.

The Morales who was dealing in Chicago, tearing through the Cubs lineup with a tremendous swing-and-miss ensemble of pitches, was the one the Rockies had hoped to see for years but who never materialized for them at the major league level.

THIS was the spectacular stuff that had always teased the Rockies organization. THIS was the pitch mix -- a mid-90s fastball, a sharp breaking ball, a splitter that he used as a changeup, albeit a somewhat modified arsenal -- that had so tantalized Colorado as the left-hander emerged as one of the top prospects in all of baseball, and that created immense frustration about his inability to harness it.

But Sunday night represented the type of performance that the Rockies had almost never seen. Morales, pushed into a starting role by Josh Beckett’s shoulder injury (and, secondarily, the need to give Clay Buchholz extra rest), delivered five somewhat remarkable innings.

In his first big league start since 2009, the 26-year-old allowed just two runs on two hits while striking out a career-high nine (he’d never before fanned more than six) and, perhaps most significantly, walking none. He threw 80 pitches, well beyond his previous season high of 52 out of the bullpen, and despite receiving a no-decision (he was in line for a win, exiting with a 3-2 lead, but the Cubs tied the game after he left), his outing was critical in setting up the Sox for a win.

“We had a hunch that he could perform well in that situation and he proved our hunch correct,” manager Bobby Valentine told reporters after the Sox won, 7-4, in the series finale in Chicago.

This is not the first time that the Red Sox have had a hunch that they could find untapped value by giving Morales a chance. A year ago, the Rockies finally reached their end point with the left-hander. Over parts of five seasons, he was 7-11 with a 4.43 ERA, having struck out 7.0 batters per nine innings but issuing 5.3 walks per nine.

By the middle of last May, Morales had appeared in 14 games in Colorado in 2011, with a respectable 3.86 ERA but with eight walks in his 14 innings of work.

After years, the Rockies were ready to move on. They made him available and the Red Sox -- though mindful that his career-long inconsistency might mean that he never delivered on the goods in Boston -- made a pure upside play, acquiring him for what was referred to at the time as a player to be named and/or cash. That turned out to be cash, a sum in the low six figures getting transferred from the Sox to Colorado.

It would be an exaggeration to say that the move hearkened to the days of the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush, but nonetheless, it was a form of speculation that has seemingly paid off handsomely for the Red Sox so far.

Of course, it didn’t necessarily seem like there would be any return on the investment for the Red Sox. Just a week after the Sox acquired him last year, they placed him on the disabled list in late May with a forearm strain. While he was on a rehab assignment in Pawtucket, the Red Sox bullpen was amidst a dominant stretch, and externally, there remained some question about whether there would be a role for Morales, the left-hander who was out of options.

But the Sox did not view it that way.

“We wanted to commit to turning him into a guy for us,” Sox general manager Ben Cherington explained earlier this year.

And Morales wanted to make a similar commitment. His confidence was unshaken by the trade. To the contrary, he became determined in light of being moved by the only organization for whom he’d played.

“I had my stuff,” Morales said. “I said, ‘I’ll work hard every day and do my job. I know what I’ve got when I come to pitch.’ ”

In 36 games for the Sox, he had a 3.62 ERA with 8.6 strikeouts and a career-best 3.1 walks per nine innings. His willingness to attack the strike zone was augmented by an evolving pitch mix. He began incorporating his two-seam fastball against righties, worked to develop a splitter, and starting on Aug. 9 of last year, he raced through a career-best streak of 14 straight appearances without issuing a walk.

Over the last seven weeks of the season, he had a 2.30 ERA with 16 strikeouts and four walks in 15 2/3 innings, a stretch that included a gutsy two-inning performance in extra innings in Yankee Stadium for a win on the final Sunday of the year.

But even then, Morales wanted to keep building. Back in his native Venezuela over the winter, he pitched in winter ball, where he was dazzling.

In two months, he tossed 22 scoreless innings while striking out 26 and walking just four. He used the time to tighten his delivery, improve his command and find the right pitch mix that would allow him to continue to get the ball past hitters while reducing the walks. There was some cost -- Morales showed up in spring training with a lack of strength in his shoulder, resulting in his being held back for a few weeks to build strength -- but the payoff exceeded that, as the left-hander used the winter work to cement the gains he made with the Sox at the end of last year.

“He said he went to winter ball just to work on [command]. That’s the maturity of a pitcher,” Sox first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, who saw plenty of Morales when both were in the NL West, noted earlier this year. “He’s throwing a sinker, slider, curveball, split now, all to lefties. He’s mixing it up. He used to be just a thrower. He’s got all the same stuff, plus with more command. He’s learning to mix in and out, up and down, and he’s more evolved, a better pitcher.”

At a time when he was still in the bullpen, Gonzalez praised the 26-year-old Morales for seeking out both him and David Ortiz to break down how to attack left-handed hitters in a fashion that would give them fits.

“He listens a lot and he applies it,” said Gonzalez.

And now, he is applying himself. Morales is revealing an advanced pitch mix -- starting with his mid-90s fastball that has all kinds of movement and then flashing offspeed stuff that can move in all sorts of directions -- that ultimately helped to convince the Sox that he could help them in a number of ways.

“It’s rare to find guys who can throw as hard as he does with four ‘plus’ pitches,” catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia noted. “He’s got stuff where he can do any role.”

The Sox took such conclusions to a new level on Sunday, and Morales rewarded the experiment of putting him in the rotation with, for a day, electrifying results.

“Right now I feel very confident about myself,” Morales told reporters in Chicago. “I tried to take the hitter out any way. I took it hitter by hitter and pitch by pitch, and that worked for me."

On the year, Morales now has a 3.14 ERA, 29 strikeouts (9.1 per nine innings) and eight walks (2.5 per nine) in 28 2/3 innings. He had often been used in low-leverage situations, entering games with the Sox trailing.

But now, he will continue to be thrust into a position of greater prominence, getting at least one more start with Beckett out.

“Those were five pretty good innings. And he had more, according to him,” Valentine told reporters. “I’d like to give him a chance to do more next time.”