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Rockies ride three long balls in win over Royals

May 20, 2007 - 5:26 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Coors Field has been known as a hitter-friendly park since its inception. For one of the first times this season, the Colorado Rockies used their home park to their advantage.

Brad Hawpe and Garrett Atkins each homered and Taylor Buchholz pitched seven solid innings as the Rockies downed the Kansas City Royals, 6-4, on Saturday.

Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, Hawpe hit a two-run shot to deep center off Royals starter Gil Meche (3-2) to give the Rockies a 2-1 lead. The homer ended a 31-inning road scoreless streak for Meche.

"You keep trying to coach up and keep them going and we were able to bust through in some areas tonight," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "Garrett's home run, that's as big of a home run as he's hit for us."

With the same score in the sixth, Atkins blasted his first home run since April 14 - a three-run shot - to push the Rockies advantage to 5-1. Atkins, who had 29 homers and 120 RBI last season, notched an RBI for only the third time in 16 games in the month of May.

"It was nice, Hawpe had the big home run, (Todd) Helton and I both had one," Atkins said. "That's not how you draw it up but we'll take it. It was nice to see a little bit of power coming out."

Buchholz (1-3) recovered from a eight-run, 12-hit nightmare home start over 4 2/3 innings against San Francisco to yield one unearned run and five hits with two walks and four strikeouts over seven frames for his first win since April 18.

"It's really satisfying," Buchholz said. "I struggled my last game and I worked hard in my bullpen sessions and took it into the game."

"Taylor took some nice steps forward for us," Hurdle said. "He pitched a good ball game for us."

Helton hit a solo homer and scored three times for the victorious Rockies, halting a stretch in which they dropped 10 of their last 15 games at home.

Ramon Ramirez - who gave up three runs in the ninth - gave way to closer Brian Fuentes, who forced Esteban German into a groundout to post his 11th save in 12 chances.

Meche pitched a season-low five frames, allowing five runs and eight hits with a walk and three strikeouts. The righthander, whose 1.91 ERA was the second-best mark in the American League entering the contest, saw the Royals lose a game in which he started for the first time in five outings.

"Coming out of the (pen, I was as strong as I could be," Meche said. "Hawpe hit a really good pitch, (a) 3-2 changeup down and away. You just tip your cap on that one. It was just one of those days where you get beat by a couple homers."

Ryan Shealy hit a three-homer among his three hits and Mark Teahen registered two hits for Kansas City, which missed out on a chance to give the Royals their first four-game overall winning streak since July 4-7, 2006. The defeat also ended the Royals' hopes of winning four straight road games for the first time since September 13-16, 2003.