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Holliday leads Rockies past Dodgers

Jul 23, 2008 - 11:56 PM By Brady Delander PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) -- The Colorado Rockies got just enough from Glendon Rusch on Wednesday, and the bullpen did more than enough to secure a series win.

Rusch won his third straight start and Matt Holliday doubled and drove in two runs to lead the Rockies to a 5-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Holliday, Jeff Baker, Brad Hawpe and Ian Stewart all finished with two hits as Colorado took two games in the three-game series at Coors Field. The Rockies (45-58) have won six of seven since the All-Star break.

The lefthanded Rusch (4-3) picked up his first win in six starts against the Dodgers, dating to 2001, allowing three runs and seven hits in five innings.

"(Rusch) bent today, he didn't break," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "But the bullpen was outstanding and the exclamation point, as it has been for a while, was Brian (Fuentes)."

Fuentes tied the club record for career saves, picking up No. 102 - and his 17th this season - after working around a hit in the ninth. Fuentes also set a club mark by retiring 23 batters in a row before Matt Kemp broke the streak with a two-out single.

"Records are made to be broken," Fuentes said. "As far as cherishing this one more than any other (save), I didn't think about that. We took the series, and that is what's important."

Relievers Taylor Buchholz and Manny Corpas both worked out of jams to hold the lead, combining for five strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings.

Colorado opened with a two-run first as Scott Podsednik hustled to turn a shallow fly ball into a leadoff double and Baker followed with an infield single. Holliday drove in the first run with a base hit to left, and Garrett Atkins plated Baker with a groundout to give the Rockies a 2-0 lead.

The Dodgers responded in the second as Jeff Kent led off with a single and moved to second on Andruw Jones' walk. Andy LaRoche followed with an RBI base hit and scored on Danny Ardoin's hard single up the middle, evening the game at 2-2.

"I definitely struggled," Rusch said. "I have to give credit to our offense jumping out early. Our bullpen, you can't say enough about how well they threw today."

Holliday collected his second RBI of the game in the third. After Baker opened the inning with a triple to right, Holliday lined a shot that deflected off the glove of Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda and into left field for a run-scoring double.

Hawpe plated Holliday with a two-base hit that Kemp misplayed in right field, and Stewart delivered an RBI single to left for a 5-2 bulge.

"Our offense is clicking and going good," Hawpe said. "We had a lot of good swings lately."

After Jones delivered an RBI double in the fourth, Los Angeles put the tying run in scoring position in the eighth with one out. But Buchholz struck out Jones and LaRoche to end the threat.

Kuroda (5-7) gave up five runs and nine hits in six innings.

"Kuroda just looked like he couldn't find a comfortable rhythm," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "He was making a lot of pitches in the middle of the plate. We had some chances, we had enough hits and had some opportunities. It was a frustrating game for us."