De La Rosa cruises behind offensive outburst

DENVER -- Jorge De La Rosa continued the Rockies rotation's roll Friday night, holding the Mets to three runs in six solid innings as the Rockies won, 10-3, at Coors Field in front of 42,040.

De La Rosa (3-3) gave up eight hits and three walks but struck out four, and the Rockies have won the first two meetings of a four-game series. De La Rosa's work Friday improved Rockies starters to 10-2 with a 3.08 ERA since April 15, and the team is 12-5 during that stretch. Pitching has helped the Rockies to an 18-13 overall record and second in the National League West, a game behind the Giants.

The rotation has been without left-hander Brett Anderson (broken left index finger) since April 12. Tyler Chatwood went on the disabled list this week with a flexor tendon strain in his right elbow and could be gone for two months. Right-hander Jhoulys Chacin (strained right shoulder) won't make his season debut until Sunday in the finale with the Mets.

"All the starters are pitching really well, with all five guys in there," said De La Rosa, who began 0-2 with a 9.69 ERA through three starts but is 3-1 and 2.63 in four starts since. "Having Chacin back is going to help a lot. We have to keep the games close and wait until the guys start swinging the bat, like today."

Charlie Blackmon had three hits, including his sixth homer of the season, Troy Tulowitzki had three hits and drove in three runs, and Nolan Arenado ran his hit streak to 22 games -- tied for fourth-longest in club history. Friday was the Rockies' fifth game scoring in double figures, tied with the Athletics for most in the Majors.

"Everybody in that lineup, one through nine, if there's somebody coming off the bench, those guys swing it well," said the Mets' Curtis Granderson, who hit a two-run homer. "You look at the leaderboards before the game and you see two or three or four of their guys up there in multiple categories."

But as long as the pitching holds, that will be hard to eclipse in importance for the Rockies, who are 10-4 at home this season.

"You take three guys out of any starting rotation in baseball, it's going to be a challenge," Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. "That's what's happened with us, and guys have stepped up and pitched well.

"We're playing well in most phases of the game right now. But it usually comes down to pitching well and we're doing it."

On Friday, De La Rosa was efficient at times, not at others, but he came up with pitches when he needed them.

The Mets managed a first-inning run on three hits. In the third, David Wright and Chris Young singled with two out, but De La Rosa struck out Granderson.

The Mets didn't cause trouble until Granderson's homer with no outs in the sixth. De La Rosa walked Josh Satin and gave up a Travis d'Arnaud single before turning untouchable again, inducing a Ruben Tejada double-play grounder and catching Bobby Abreu looking at a 94 mph fastball with the count 2-2.

"When he gave up the home run, he knew he opened up his front side a little bit and the ball ran inside for Granderson, to his belt and he put a good swing on it," Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario said. "When he makes a little mistake, he recognizes it, and I think that happened."

De La Rosa showed Friday that he knows how to deal with temporary losses of command. Like last year, when he went 16-6 with a 3.49 ERA and matched a career high in wins, De La Rosa is coming up with a well-executed pitch to right himself and end an inning.

"That was the problem in the beginning of the season," De La Rosa said. "I didn't have my command and tried to do too much. The last few games, I've tried to be relaxed, have fun and throw quality pitches."

Of course, pitching and offense work together, and the Rockies made De La Rosa's job easier by scoring six runs in the first two innings and seven (six earned) in four innings against Mets starter Zack Wheeler (1-3). The innings were the fewest and runs were the most allowed in Wheeler's Major League career.

Arenado singled in the seventh off Mets reliever Carlos Torres, after Blackmon had homered, to keep his streak alive. The longest hit streak in Rockies history is Michael Cuddyer's 27-gamer last year, May 28-June 30; followed by Dante Bichette's 23 games, May 22-June 16, 1995; and the 22 game streaks of Arenado this season and Vinny Castilla, Aug. 9-Sept. 1, 1997.