RockyMountainNews.com

August 25, 2007

Nationals treasure: Rockies dig deep

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Statistically, a win is a win. Whether it is ninth-inning comeback with possible postseason implications or a blowout during the third week of April, the standings reflect a victory. There are no style points.

Some wins are a little better than others, though.

Then there are wins such as the 6-5 ninth-inning comeback the Rockies pulled out against the Nationals on Friday night at Coors Field.

Limited to four hits and one run through eight innings, the Rockies equaled the biggest ninth-inning-or-later comeback in history and kept their fading postseason hopes alive.

"Every win is a big win," manager Clint Hurdle said.

Some are bigger than the rest, such as the one Friday night.

Nationals closer Chad Cordero got the call with a 5-1 lead, and five batters later, the Rockies were down only 5-3 with the tying run on second base.

The Rockies claimed their 65th win this season - and this one had a bit more pizzazz than any of the previous 64.

"It has to be our biggest win of the season," rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki said.

Think about it.

The Rockies not only entered the game with seven losses in their past 10, but were just handed their first series loss at Coors Field in 12 series. They dropped three of four to Pittsburgh, which has the worst record in the National League.

Then they found themselves three outs away from losing to the Nationals, whose 27-37 road record is the second worst in the NL.

"We lose this game and we lose in three a row at home to teams we should not lose to," Tulowitzki said. "This has to give us momentum. It gets our confidence back. It's a huge win."

The Rockies still face long odds in their postseason dream, but they did, at least, pull back within 6 1/2 games of NL West- leading Arizona and a game behind third-place Los Angeles.

They also remained 4 1/2 games behind wild-card leader San Diego and moved back to two games over .500.

They need 17 wins in their final 34 games to enjoy their first winning season since 2000, and 19 wins to set a franchise record with 84 wins.

The rally started with Tulo- witzki - a longtime foe of Cordero when Tulowitzki played at Long Beach State and Cordero pitched for Fullerton State - singling to open the ninth on the first pitch Cordero threw.

Matt Holliday unloaded his 23rd home run on the next pitch.

After Todd Helton had an infield single, Garrett Atkins doubled and Brad Hawpe walked to load the bases. Jon Rauch took over for Cordero.

Yorvit Torrealba greeted him with a game-tying, two-run single. Then, with two out, the winning run scored on Kazuo Matsui's broken-bat groundball that shortstop D'Angelo Jimenez booted - in a hurry to try and get speedy Matsui at first.

"We talked in the dugout about being ready to hit," Hurdle said of the approach against Cordero. "If you see a pitch to hit, hit it early. The guy is a good closer and he is aggressive with his fastball."

The plan worked. Tulowitzki, Holliday and Atkins had first-pitch hits, and the Rockies rallied from a four-run deficit in the ninth for at least the fourth time in franchise history.

It wasn't pretty for eight innings.

Jeff Francis gave the Rockies a solid 6 1/3 innings, but was betrayed in the seventh when both Torrealba and Matsui had throwing errors.

That led to two unearned runs charged to Francis, who left with the bases loaded in favor of Taylor Buchholz, who was greeted by Ryan Zimmerman's two-run single.

The Rockies, meanwhile, twice couldn't even get productive outs with a runner on third and less than two outs.

After Matsui tripled with one out in the third, third-base coach Mike Gallego held him on Tulowitzki's flyball to medium center despite Nook Logan's subpar arm.

And after Helton doubled to open the fourth and took third on Atkins' flyball to deep right, Hawpe struck out looking.

"We finished with a flurry," Hurdle said.

The first good omen was the top of the ninth, when former closer Brian Fuentes looked like the three-time All-Star he is, retiring the Nationals in order.

Then came the offensive flood in the bottom of the ninth.

"What is good about these guys is they play until the end," Hurdle said.

"We didn't have much happen early, but we were able to barrel the ball in the ninth."