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Rockies beat up on Mets again to complete sweep

Jul 5, 2007 - 5:23 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Todd Helton, Garrett Atkins and the rest of the Colorado Rockies will be sad to see the New York Mets leave town.

Helton and Atkins had five RBI each and every starter scored at least one run in the Rockies' 17-7 rout over the Mets on Wednesday night.

Atkins went 4-for-5 with a home run and Brad Hawpe and Troy Tulowitzki also homer as the Rockies raked New York's pitching for a season-high total in runs and tying a season high in hits with 20.

"It's nice, it was a total team effort," Atkins said. "It seemed like everyone had a couple hits tonight and we had several good innings and any time you do that you feel good about how you're swinging the bat."

Colorado became the first team to ever sweep a series from both the Mets and New York Yankees in a season.

The Rockies, who banged out 18 hits and 11 runs in beating New York on Tuesday, were even more effective against the shaky Mets' pitching one night later.

"We were barreling the ball pretty good tonight," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "When your four and five hitters get 10 RBI, we were on base all night tonight."

"We didn't play well, that's the bottom line," Mets manager Willie Randolph said. "We got outplayed here. They're a talented young team trying to turn things around and they took advantage of us. This was a giveaway game."

With Colorado trailing, 3-0, after one inning, Atkins led off the second with a single and Hawpe followed with his 14th home run to cut the lead to 3-2.

The Rockies tied it in the third when Cory Sullivan led off with a single and stole second. Mets starter Orlando Hernandez (4-4) then retired Kazuo Matsui on a strikeout before uncorking a wild pitch that moved Sullivan to third base with one out.

Following a walk to Matt Holliday, Helton hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Sullivan and tie the game at 3-3.

Everything unraveled for the Mets in the fourth when an unusually wild Hernandez helped the Rockies' cause.

After a leadoff double by Yorvit Torrealba, pitcher Josh Fogg sacrificed him to third before Sullivan walked. After retiring Matsui on a groundout, Hernandez retired Matsui before walking Holliday and Helton to force in a run.

Atkins followed with a grounder to shortstop Jose Reyes, but an ill-advised throw went into the Rockies' dugout and scored two more runs to give Colorado a 6-3 lead.

The Rockies added six more runs in the fifth off Guillermo Mota, who got only two outs and gave up home runs to Tulowitzki and Atkins.

"We're heading in the right direction," Tulowitzki said. "We can compete with anybody, we've proven that, and we need to continue it and keep winning games."

Fogg (4-6) pitched six innings and allowed five runs and eight hits while walking one and striking out three.

"You don't want to give up three in the first but it seems like yesterday was the same way," Fogg said. "I gave up a couple in the first and the offense scored all those runs in each inning from the second through the sixth. It's nice pitching with a 10-3 lead in the sixth inning."

Mets third baseman David Wright gave New York a 3-0 lead in the first inning with his 15th home run.