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Rockies slay Giants in slugfest

Apr 12, 2012 - 5:50 AM Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Carlos Gonzalez tripled twice, drove in four runs and scored four times as Colorado dominated San Francisco, 17-8, in the second of a three-game set.

The previous game in the series on Monday saw the Rockies get blanked, but they scored runs in the first five innings in the commanding performance.

Troy Tulowitzki, Michael Cuddyer, Ramon Hernandez and Chris Nelson each drove in two runs for the Rockies, who snapped a three-game skid. Matt Reynolds (1-0) picked up the win for pitching 1 2/3 innings.

Nate Schierholtz homered twice and drove in three runs while Brandon Crawford also homered for the Giants, whose win on Monday was their first of the season. Guillermo Mota (0-1) was charged with five runs -- four earned -- in the fourth inning to take the loss.

Neither starter factored in the decision as Jeremy Guthrie was touched for six runs on nine hits in just 3 1/3 frames for Colorado while Tim Lincecum was banged around for six runs in just 2 1/3 innings for San Fran.

"A lot of the pitches I threw were sloppy," said Lincecum. "I wasn't executing pitches and missing a lot of my throws. That's going to hurt you, especially in this park."

Gonzalez tripled home the first of many runs in the first inning and came home to score when Tulowitzki followed with a groundout. Nelson's RBI single in the second made it a 3-0 game.

The runs kept coming into the third as Gonzalez hit his second triple of the game to score a run and came home on a wild pitch. Hernandez later brought in a run with a single for a 6-0 advantage.

The Giants, though, took the lead in the fourth. Schierholtz and Crawford hit back-to-back home runs to start the inning, and Melky Cabrera and Pablo Sandoval each brought in a run in the frame.

After Matt Reynolds took over on the hill, Hector Sanchez brought home two with a single and a sac fly from Schierholtz made it a 7-6 game.

Colorado got the lead right back in the bottom of the inning as a Gonzalez run-scoring groundout, RBI single from Tulowitzki and RBI double off the bat of Cuddyer gave the team a 9-7 lead.

"We have a good offense here so we weren't too worried after they took the lead," said Gonzalez. "Everyone was seeing their pitches really well and we got good swings on the pitches."

The Rockies then put up a seven-spot of their own in the fifth. Marco Scutaro got things started with an RBI double and scored on a Gonzalez single. Todd Helton then doubled home Gonzalez. After Cuddyer walked, Hernandez singled to score one run and Cuddyer came home on an error on the play from Brett Pill. Nelson then brought home Hernandez with a double and scored himself on a triple from Eric Young.

Schierholtz led off the seventh with his second home run of the season while Cuddyer scored Gonzalez with a double in the eighth to cap the scoring.

Game Notes

Colorado had totaled 10 runs on the season coming into the game...San Francisco had taken eight of nine from Colorado entering the game...Colorado left 11 men on base, but batted 13-for-26 with runners in scoring position...San Francisco committed three errors in the game.