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Tulowitzki powers Rockies to 5-4 win over Brewers

Aug 14, 2010 - 5:32 AM DENVER(AP) -- Troy Tulowitzki jogged to first base and stopped, unsure if he was a star or robbed of another hit.

When the crowd starting roaring, the standout shortstop continued his home run trot.

"It was the fans' reaction," he said. "It got kind of loud there, starting in the left-field seats."

Tulowitzki hit a three-run homer in the eighth inning and the Colorado Rockies rallied to beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-4 on Friday night.

With runners on second and third and no outs, Kameron Loe (2-3) relieved starter Yovani Gallardo and Tulowitzki hit an 0-1 pitch off the glove of a leaping Ryan Braun at the left-field wall.

For a split-second, only Braun knew it was gone.

"I felt the ball go off the tip of my glove. If I had a couple of more inches I probably would have caught it," Braun said. "I knew as soon as I came down I didn't have it."

After three hard-hit balls for outs before the eighth, Tulowitzki wasn't taking anything for granted.

"I hit some balls hard that were caught," he said. "I was starting to get frustrated, but one broke my way."

Todd Helton drew a leadoff walk and Carlos Gonzalez doubled down the left-field line before Tulowitzki's 11th homer delighted the crowd of 39,142 at Coors Field.

"From my angle it looked like he caught it," Helton said. "I was tagging."

It was another memorable win in a season of dramatic home victories for the Rockies, who have struggled on the road. They scored nine runs in the ninth inning to beat St. Louis in Denver on July 7. They put up 12 runs in the eighth inning against the Chicago Cubs two weeks ago.

"We've had some magic here," Tulowitzki said. "We've had some pretty impressive comebacks. We keep that in the back of our minds, especially at home."

Taylor Buchholz (1-0) picked up his first win in nearly two years and Huston Street worked the ninth for his eighth save. Gonzalez, the National League's leading hitter, had two doubles and raised his average to .324.

Rickie Weeks had two doubles and Jonathan Lucroy had two hits for the Brewers.

The teams combined for 16 hits, including 12 doubles.

Trailing 1-0, the Brewers took the lead in the sixth. Braun and Casey McGehee hit one-out doubles to tie the game. After Lorenzo Cain struck out, Alcides Escobar doubled to center to chase starter Jorge De La Rosa.

Lucroy greeted Matt Belisle with a single to right that made it 3-1.

De La Rosa allowed three runs and six hits, struck out five and walked three.

Milwaukee added another run in the seventh when Weeks led off with a double, moved to third on a passed ball and scored on Corey Hart's sacrifice fly.

"We played a great game," Milwaukee manager Ken Macha said. "We ran the bases aggressively and had some big hits from our young guys. We ran everything out of the box and got doubles out of singles."

The Rockies got a run back in the bottom half. Ian Stewart reached on a leadoff double and scored on pinch-hitter Ryan Spilborghs' two-out double to left-center.

Gallardo gave up four runs and seven hits in his longest outing since shutting out Minnesota on June 24.

"He is our best pitcher," Macha said. "Even with the lefties, he had pitched great with all of those lefties in the lineup. I wasn't going to let him lose the game."

The Rockies took a 1-0 lead in the third on consecutive two-out doubles by Helton and Gonzalez. They had a chance for more but right fielder Hart tracked down Tulowitzki's drive into the right-center field gap for the last out.

NOTES: Buchholz's previous win was Aug. 20, 2008, against the Dodgers. He missed all of 2009 after having right elbow surgery. ... McGehee grounded out in the first to end his streak of consecutive hits at nine, a club record. ... The Brewers released OF Jody Gerut.