The Colorado Rockies simply cannot lose. After winning 14 of their final 15 games to close out the season and take the National League Wild Card, Colorado beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 in game one of their National League Division Series match-up.
Jeff Francis struck out eight in six innings for the Rockies, his only blemishes coming off back-to-back home runs by Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell in the fifth inning. Colorado did most of their damage in the second, scoring three runs on three hits and three walks, one to Troy Tulowitzki with the bases loaded. Todd Helton led off the frame with a triple and then scored on Garrett Atkins' double. Yorvit Torrealba then knocked in a run with an RBI-single, and Tulowitzki drew a bases-loaded walk to bring yet another run across the plate in what turned out to be a 40-pitch inning for Philadelphia ace Cole Hamels. Hamels was lucky he only allowed three runs that inning, though, as Matt Holliday hit a blast that went just foul with the bases full in that same frame.
Rowand and Burrell led off the bottom of the fifth with homers to make it a 3-2 game, but Francis, who struck out the first four Phillies of the game, then settled down, retiring six of the next eight batters. LaTroy Hawkins entered the game in the seventh and, after walking Greg Dobbs with one out, got Carlos Ruiz to ground into an inning-ending double-play.
Tom Gordon relieved Hamels with two outs in the seventh and retired Kaz Matsui, but then gave up a home run to Holliday in the eighth, giving the Rockies a 4-2 advantage that they would keep the rest of the afternoon. Manuel Corpas closed the door for Colorado with a 1-2-3 ninth.
The 1-2-3-4 hitters should shoulder much of the blame for putting Philadelphia in an 0-1 hole in this best-of-five series, as they combined to go 0-for-15 with nine strikeouts. Chase Utley struck out four times, three against Francis. Ryan Howard struck out on three occasions, and Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino each went down on strikes once.
Game two of the series is tomorrow at 3 PM ET at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.
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