After big third, Rockies hold off Braves
09/24/2006DENVER -- A day after being officially eliminated from the playoff race, the Rockies' Saturday night bash with the Braves in town was a promise for the future.
Five Rockies had multihit games, with Jeff Salazar leading the way with a double, two singles, two RBIs, and a steal as the Rockies beat the Braves, 10-9.
"I was more happy about the situations where I came up," said Salazar, who had runners in scoring position in three of his five at-bats. "I came up a few times tonight, runner on third, less than two outs, and I would have been just as happy if I would have grounded out to second and got the run in."
After striking out in the first run-scoring situation, Salazar doubled to right in the six-run third inning and singled over a drawn-in infield in the fifth, plating runs both times.
Rockies starter Jeff Francis (13-11) delivered on his own promise and became the winningest southpaw in club history by notching his 30th career win despite a subpar performance. Francis struggled with his fastball command and pitched behind in counts most of the night, but he held on for five innings, giving up five runs on nine hits and three walks while striking out two.
"It was a battle the whole way," Francis said. "It's nice having run support like that. Having a five-, six-run lead most of the way, I was able to just go out there and try to throw strikes. The fifth inning got away from me, but fortunately, I came out of it, and the bullpen held it and we came out with a win."
Francis loaded the bases on two walks and a single before recording an out in the fifth, but he induced Jeff Francoeur into a run-scoring double play to Garrett Atkins at third, before coaxing a grounder to second from Adam LaRoche to end the inning and preserve a five-run lead.
While his ERA crept over 4.00 for the first time in over two months, Francis joined Tom Glavine (14) and Andy Pettitte (13) as the only National League left-handers with at least 13 wins in '06. He was unaware that he had set a Rockies record for career wins by a left-hander -- and that he set the record for left-handed wins at Coors with 20 -- before finishing just his second full season in the big leagues.
"That's a pretty cool thing," Francis said when informed of the milestone. "To hold any record of any kind is an accomplishment. It's flattering that people even talk about it. Hopefully, there's more to come."
Francis would probably prefer not to see any more of Andruw Jones, however. Jones knocked a run-scoring double over the center-field fence in the first and a solo homer over the left-field fence in the third. He homered again in the seventh off Jose Mesa and singled up the middle in the ninth off Brian Fuentes.
"We'll be glad to see him leave town," manager Clint Hurdle said. "He's done a lot of trotting since he's been here. Every time I look up the ball's bouncing off a wall."
Four Rockies relievers diffused a serious threat in the eighth, when Mesa, beginning his third inning of work, gave up a leadoff single to Willy Aybar and Tom Martin gave up a one-out double to Todd Pratt before walking Martin Prado to load the bases.
The Braves sent switch-hitting Chipper Jones to the plate against the left-handed Martin. Jones came off the disabled list Tuesday but hasn't played since Wednesday, due to a sore right foot that kept him from making right-handed at bats until Saturday night.
The Rockies countered with another left-hander, Jeremy Affeldt, who struck out Jones in the critical at-bat.
"He's given us some peaks and some valleys," Hurdle said of Affeldt. "That's a big out right there. We wanted to make sure we kept Chipper right. He's a good hitter from both sides, but if you got to pick one poison, you're going to pick that one."
It would be natural to assume that Affeldt must have had a good history against Jones to be used for that one bases-loaded at bat with the game on the line, but Affeldt was quick to clarify to the contrary his previous knowledge of Jones.
"I've never seen him in my life," Affeldt said of Jones. "Sometimes you got to go on strictly your strength, and get a feel for the guys. I didn't know who I was facing when I was coming in. Iannetta said, 'What do you want to throw Chipper?' I said 'Chipper? All right, well, we got to go with our strengths, we got to mix it up on him.' I know he's got some power. He can hit the fastball. So it was all about location."
After starting him off with a "bad" curve and falling to 2-0, he got Jones to foul off two strikes before finishing him off with a cut fastball.
Nate Field came on and gave up a two-run single to Edgar Renteria before Many Corpas took the baton and ended the inning with one pitch.
Fuentes pitched the ninth, yielding a run on Andruw Jones' leadoff single and a run-scoring double from Aybar before striking out the side to earn his 28th save of the season.
The Rockies have averaged 9.8 runs in their 10 September home games, a refreshing change of pace after their late-summer scoring draught.
"The whole time I've been here we've done that" Salazar said. "It's kind of strange. I can't picture them not doing it. For all I know they could have been doing this all year."
They haven't done it all year, but as September comes to a close, the Rockies are keeping their eyes on the future.
"It's been a very good look," Hurdle said of the revitalized offense. "It's been a promising look
Source: http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/
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