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Holliday, big second inning help Rockies cruise past Dodgers

Sep 20, 2007 - 11:54 PM DENVER (Ticker) -- Matt Holliday continues to put his hat in the ring as the best in the National League.

Holliday's three-run homer was the big blow in a six-run second inning as the Colorado Rockies completed a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers with a 9-4 victory on Thursday.

Rookie Ubaldo Jimenez pitched 6 1/3 effective innings and Brad Hawpe and rookie Troy Tulowitzki also drove in three runs apiece for Colorado (81-72), which stayed within 4 1/2 games of the San Diego Padres (84-67) for the lead in the NL wildcard race.

San Diego, which has won seven in a row, defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3, on Thursday afternoon.

It also was just the second-ever sweep by Colorado over Los Angeles and first since in 1993.

"It's been a long time," Tulowitzki said. "They're a great team. This is special for us."

The Dodgers (79-74) - losers of five straight - are all but out of the wild card picture, falling 6 1/2 games behind with nine remaining.

"This might have been the worst three days I've ever been a part of, to be honest with you," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "The Rockies are hot. This four-game series showed that we were beaten by a better team than us in this series."

Holliday, who entered this game leading the league in batting (.340) and RBI (128), is one of the leading candidates for NL MVP. The two-time All-Star has posted career highs in hits, batting average and runs driven in for the Rockies, who are a season-best nine games over .500.

"It's not for me to decide or for me to have an opinion," Holliday said when asked about his MVP candidacy. "I just try to go out and do the best that I can and do things to help this team win. We have nine games left and if things fall right, we have a chance to make the playoffs."

A four-year veteran who finished the game tied for the league lead in hitting (.339) with Atlanta's Chipper Jones, Holliday added to his totals when Colorado's offense exploded in the second inning.

After the Rockies had taken a 1-0 lead on an RBI double by Tulowitzki, Holliday - with runners on second and third - belted a 1-0 slider from Dodgers starter Derek Lowe into the seats in left-center field to give Colorado a four-run advantage. It was Holliday's 36th blast of the year and 11th in his last 12 games.

"It's a good feeling to have. You go through times in a season where you don't feel as good as other times," Holliday said. "It's a much better feeling to go up there with the confidence and timing that I have now. It"s funny, I've never really been in (a groove) like this. Everything just feels right."

Later in the frame, Hawpe hammered a two-run double into the right-center field gap to increase the lead to six. Hawpe, who added an RBI single in the sixth, helped the Rockies become the first team in the majors to have three players with at least 100 RBI.

Hawpe is third on the club with 101 RBI, trailing Holliday (131) and Garrett Atkins (103).

"We've scored quite a bit of runs this year," Hawpe said. "I think we've proven that we have a good offense."

Lowe (12-13) was tagged for six runs, eight hits and a season-high five walks in three-plus frames. It was the second time this season the veteran righthander has been knocked out after just three innings of work.

Jimenez (4-4), who cruised through his first six innings by scattering three hits, ran into trouble a frame later.

"I wasn't feeling any pressure, but I was trying to do more," Jimenez said. "After my last start, which wasn't that good, I really tried to do better."

With the Rockies leading, 7-0, in the seventh, the 23-year-old Dominican righthander allowed a leadoff double by Jeff Kent, who advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on Luis Gonzalez's groundout.

Russell Martin then drew a walk before Andre Ethier belted a two-run homer, cutting Los Angeles' deficit to 7-3.

Jimenez was removed from the game after yielding three runs, five hits and three walks and striking out one. Matt Herges came on and served up rookie Andy LaRoche's first career homer, which drew the Dodgers within three.

However, Tulowitzki smashed a two-run shot off rookie Jonathan Meloan in the bottom of the inning to finish the scoring.

Tulowitzki has 22 home runs this season, the second-most in baseball history by a rookie shortstop.

"I'm not really worried about the homers," Tulowitzki said. "If I hit home runs and it helps the team win, that's great, but I'm not concerned with the records. We're playing well and I'm just looking for the playoff push."

Ethier and LaRoche each had two hits for the Dodgers, who were swept for the fifth time this season.