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Hawpe continues hot hitting as Rockies win seventh straight

Sep 23, 2007 - 6:07 AM By Tim Powers PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

SAN DIEGO (Ticker) -- Brad Hawpe and the red-hot Colorado Rockies are gaining ground in the playoff race.

Hawpe tied his career high with four hits and drove in two runs to lead the Rockies to their seventh -straight win, a 6-2 victory over the slumping San Diego Padres on Saturday that muddled the postseason picture in the National League.

The win pulled Colorado (83-72) within 2 1/2 games of San Diego (85-69) in the NL wild card standings and put a dent in the Padres' hopes of catching first-place Arizona (89-67), which leads the NL West by 2 1/2 games after a win over Los Angeles.

"It feels good," Hawpe said. "It's now or never, or else we'll just have to wait till next year, so this is as good a time to be hot as any. We're playing well and we've got ourselves into a position to contend for a playoff spot. That's all you can ask for."

Also with the loss, the Padres lead in the wild card shrunk to one-half game over Philadelphia (85-70), which beat Washington.

"In the end, we should be in the playoffs, so there's no need to panic," Padres first baseman Adrian Gonzalez said. "We've still got (eight) games to go, and if we win about five of those, we should be in. We're still in the lead."

Justin Speier (2-1) pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief to pick up the victory. Jorge Julio and Brian Fuentes each contributed a perfect inning in front of Manny Corpas, who closed out the triumph.

"They were real good today," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said of his bullpen. "Everybody wants to compete and throw whatever they can into the basket to help the team win.

The Rockies jumped on San Diego starter Jack Cassel early, pushing across a run in the first on a double by Hawpe that scored Troy Tulowitzki. Hawpe and Garrett Atkins had run-scoring hits in the third as Colorado built a 3-0 advantage.

Mark Redman held San Diego scoreless for four frames in his second start for the Rockies, but fell apart in the fifth when Khalil Greene led off the inning with his 24th home run. Redman walked home another run before Speier came on to retire the next two batters in order and preserve the 3-2 lead.

"It was a huge win for us tonight, so to get the ball in that situation was pumping me up quite a bit," Speier said. "I'm glad to get the ball and glad to get the job done."

Cassel (1-1) did not last long in his third major league start, exiting after 2 1/3 innings while yielding three runs on six hits. He walked one batter and did not record a strikeout.

"I took the same approach tonight as I did in my last start," Cassel said. "There were some pitches that I had poor execution on that came back and caught too much of the plate. With a good lineup like Colorado has putting strong swings on those pitches, they were able to get some hits."

The Rockies tacked on two more runs in the eighth against Justin Germano to build a 6-2 bulge.

Josh Bard had two hits for the Padres, who have dropped two straight on the heels of a seven-game winning streak.