Injury-riddled Rockies win fifth straight

Associated Press

Saturday, July 5, 2008

The Colorado Rockies keep losing players and winning games.

Matt Holliday homered and drove in four runs and Joe Koshansky hit his first major league homer as the injury-riddled Rockies won their season-best fifth straight, beating the Florida Marlins 12-6 Saturday night.

One night after hitting six homers in an epic 18-17 win over the Marlins, the Rockies went deep four more times. Chris Iannetta and Brad Hawpe also connected for Colorado, which has its longest winning streak since last fall's unfathomable 21-1 run-up to the World Series.

Jorge De La Rosa (3-4) scattered six hits and allowed three earned runs over five-plus innings. He also got his first major league hit, a single, in his 31st career at-bat.

Florida right-hander Ryan Tucker (2-3) allowed eight runs, all earned, on seven hits in four innings.

Before the game, the Rockies placed Troy Tulowitzki on the 15-day DL with a deep cut in his right palm, the result of a freak accident Friday night in which the slumping shortstop pounded his maple bat into the ground in frustration and it shattered. Tulowitzki needed 16 stitches and expects to miss about two weeks.

He's the third Colorado starter in four days to go on the DL. On Wednesday, the Rockies lost ace Jeff Francis (shoulder). First baseman Todd Helton (back) joined him on the sideline Friday.

The Rockies (37-51) won all three games with a mesh of backups and reinforcements from the minor leagues playing integral roles, helping them remain in contention in the mediocre NL West.

Koshansky, the power prospect brought up from Triple-A Colorado Springs to replace Helton, sent Tucker's 2-2 fastball deep into the center field rock pile to make it 2-0 in the second. But Koshansky, who had 18 homers and 78 RBIs at Colorado Springs, whiffed his next three times up.

The Marlins loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth, but De La Rosa got Robert Andino to ground out to third and the Rockies put the game away with a six-run outburst in their half.

Iannetta's two-run homer made it 4-0, and Holliday, who hit a grand slam Friday night, came up with the bases loaded and a chance to do it again. Matt Treanor's passed ball, however, scored De La Rosa from third before Holliday hit his 13th homer to make it 8-0.

Holliday also had a sacrifice fly in the first and has driven in nine runs in two games.

After Hawpe broke out of an 0-for-15 skid with a three-run shot off Joe Nelson in the sixth, Cody Ross replied with a three-run homer off Glendon Rusch in the seventh to make it 11-6.

The teams have combined for 64 runs in the first three games of their four-game series.

In their 18-17 slugfest Friday night, five players collected at least four hits for only the second time in the last 50 years, according to Elias Sports Bureau. It was also the sixth game since 1900 in which each team scored at least 17 runs and first since May 17, 1979, when the Phillies beat the Cubs 23-22.

Notes:@ Florida 3B Jorge Cantu was a late scratch with a sore left triceps. He was replaced by Wes Helms. ... Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said it will be at least a couple more days before 2B Dan Uggla is available to pinch hit. Uggla missed his seventh straight game because of an ankle injury.

• July 6, 2008

  10:19 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  GeeTee writes:

  Hang in there, Rockies! Note to ownership -- DO NOT DISMANTLE THIS TEAM! Stick to your promise made after last season! Do not do any big trades unless it gains the Rockies a REAL MAJOR LEAGUE STARING PITCHER. We have enough "prospects" -- many of them playing in Denver rather than the Springs, Tulsa, et. al.

• July 6, 2008

  11:14 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  chartguy writes:

  Something tells me that they've stopped using the humidor, at least temporarily.

• July 6, 2008

  1:35 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Steve_In_Denver writes:

  This is how it began last year.... GO ROCKIES!!!