Colvin's walk-off double seals sweep of Brewers
Colvin's two-run double in the bottom of the ninth gave the Rockies a 7-6 victory over the Brewers at Coors Field in front of 23,411, and their first sweep since taking four games from the Astros at home May 28-31.
"It's one of those things where we know we're going to score the runs, and if we don't, we'll get them next time," said Colvin, who tallied his first game-winning hit of the season. "We came in energetic in the ninth, knowing we were going to get on base and win the game."
The Rockies (44-71) have performed reasonably well to better offensively all year, even though they're without shortstop Troy Tulowitzki due to left groin surgery and are without veteran first baseman Todd Helton for the rest of this year due to right hip surgery.
But with decent pitching, the Rockies are finally benefiting from their hitting. They've won six of their past nine games and have their longest win streak since taking the Astros series plus one against the Dodgers to win five straight through June 1.
"When you look at everything on paper at the beginning of the year, you say we've got some young guys, but the guys are maturing and everybody is doing their part now," Colvin said. "It's exciting to see us this way."
Pinch-hitter Wilin Rosario and Eric Young Jr. -- who homered in the second inning -- singled off Jim Henderson (0-2) with one out in the ninth to put runners at first and third. Colvin bounced Henderson's pitch past Corey Hart, who was surprisingly far away from first base, and watched Young speed happily home.
"When he first hit it, my first thought was 'break up the double play,'" Young said. "But then I heard the sound of the crowd getting loud and from then I just put it into my highest gear and tried to get it to the plate."
The pitching wasn't as good as in the first two games of the series. Starter Guillermo Moscoso and middle reliever Carlos Torres struggled before Will Harris (1-0) pitched two perfect innings for his first Major League win. But the Rockies scored three first-inning runs, Young hit his fourth homer of the season and second of the series in the second inning, and Chris Nelson drove in three runs on patient at-bats.
"That was a good game for our young people to be involved in and execute in the manner in which they did," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.
The Brewers (52-64) lead the Majors with 23 blown saves. The Rockies, by the way, are second with 20, but generally those have come earlier in the game than the ones the Brewers have absorbed. In addition, the Brewers have 23 losses decided in opponent's final at-bat, including 10 on the road. Three of those came on this road trip against a pair of last-place clubs, the Astros and the Rockies.
Henderson, who suffered his first blown save, said Colvin hit a difficult pitch.
"It was a slider in, and it's hard to keep that ball fair," Henderson said. "I was very surprised it stayed fair. ... It stayed true to the line, though. It didn't curve."
Moscoso, called up from Triple-A Colorado Springs because lefty Drew Pomeranz was pushed back to Sunday (against the Marlins) with chest soreness, threw a scoreless first four innings. However, the Brewers created traffic against him with two outs in the first and second innings, and he faltered the third time through the order.
Carlos Gomez walked to open the fifth, Rickie Weeks doubled, Aramis Ramirez singled and Corey Hart doubled to drive Moscoso from the game. Two hits and a Jean Segura sacrifice fly off Torres gave the Brewers a 5-4 lead.
Nelson's RBI single in the sixth tied the game. But Torres walked Hart on four pitches to open the seventh and Nyjer Morgan softly singled off Matt Reynolds to put the Brewers ahead. Harris, who gave up a home run in his debut Monday night, kept the Brewers from scoring more runs.
A former LSU standout, Harris has family coming in Thursday for the Rockies' four-game series against the Marlins.
"They [teammates and coaches] gave me the ball and gave me a lineup card, which is really nice of them," Harris said. "I've got my family coming in, so they can take it back to Louisiana."
Henderson struck out Jonathan Herrera looking to open the ninth. Rosario, who has slugged 19 home runs but is learning patience, knocked Henderson's 1-2 pitch into left field. Young followed with his single to right, and Colvin added the game-winner.
It was a confidence jolt.
"This was our hope in Spring Training, to do what we've been doing for the last week and a half," said Nelson, who has been in and out of the lineup due to injuries, but has driven in runs in four of his past six appearances. "We know we can do this. We're working well as a team."