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Holliday powers Rockies over Giants

May 2, 2007 - 6:59 AM SAN FRANCISCO (Ticker) -- Matt Holliday and the Colorado Rockies hit like they were at Coors Field.

Holliday homered and drove in four runs and Brad Hawpe knocked in three more as the Rockies used a five-run fourth inning en route to a 9-7 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Tuesday.

Rookie Chris Iannetta had two hits and an RBI for the Rockies, who banged out 14 hits to pick up just their second win in their last seven contests.

An underrated outfielder, Holliday entered Tuesday's game leading the team in average (.385), homers (3) and RBI (19). He kept his stellar play going on Tuesday, extending his hitting streak to 14 games.

"I don't change my approach regardless of where I'm playing," Holliday said. "I try to get a pitch and hit it hard and take my chances from there."

Holliday, who is hitting .429 with 10 RBI in 13 games at hitter-friendly Coors Field this season, made sure to bring his bat on the road. He homered off Russ Ortiz (2-2) to tie the game, 3-3, in the fourth inning.

"He swings and misses every once in a while," Colorado manager Clint Hurdle said. "His confidence is growing at the plate. He's versatile and wants to do whatever he can to help us win."

One frame later, Colorado broke the game open behind the slugging left fielder. After Iannetta smacked an RBI double and rookie Troy Tulowitzki had a run-scoring infield single, the bases were loaded for Holliday, who roped a bases-clearing double to make it 8-3.

Holliday's power surge ended a stretch of stellar pitching by Ortiz, who was coming off two solid outings. The righthander had allowed just five runs in his last 12 1/3 innings. On Tuesday, however, he could not make it out of the fourth, allowing eight runs and nine hits in 3 1/3 innings. He struck out four and walked two.

"He just had trouble getting the ball where he wanted it to be," San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said. "He had pretty good stuff there early but didn't have his good command and the game was getting out of hand."

"I don't think this is a situation where I have to go back to the drawing board," Ortiz said. "It's one bad outing. I have to continue working and getting better."

Colorado got on the board quickly in the first inning. Back-to-back singles by Holliday and Todd Helton and a walk to Garrett Atkins loaded the bases for Hawpe, who singled in two runs.

In just his second start, Taylor Buchholz yielded six runs and eight hits in 3 1/3 frames. But the Rockies' bullpen hung onto the lead with three relievers tossing the final 5 2/3 innings, yielding just one run and three hits.

Alberto Arias (1-0) relieved Buchholz in the fourth and tossed 3 2/3 innings, allowing just one hit to pick up the win in his major league debut. The second hitter Arias faced was Giants slugger Barry Bonds, and he recorded his first career strikeout against Bonds on five pitches.

"I wasn't nervous (against Bonds)," Arias said. "I felt good on the mound. I just tried to have fun. I went out there relaxed."

"That's quite an impressive first outing in the major leagues. I don't know if I've seen one better than that out of the bullpen," Hurdle said.

After Manny Corpas got through the eighth, closer Brian Fuentes pitched a perfect ninth, striking out two and leaving Bonds on deck to pick up his fifth save. Bonds was 0-for-4 and left two runners on base for the Giants, who have lost four of their last five games.