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Rockies tee off on Schilling, Red Sox

Jun 14, 2007 - 4:23 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- One start after coming an out away from his first career no-hitter, Curt Schilling had no such luck with the Colorado Rockies.

Brad Hawpe cracked a three-run homer while Matt Holliday collected three hits in support of Josh Fogg as the Rockies topped the Red Sox, 12-2, at Fenway Park.

Kaz Matsui and Troy Tulowitzki also had a pair of hits and Todd Helton drove in four runs for Colorado, which bounced back from a 2-1 loss in the series opener Tuesday.

Holliday raised his National League-leading batting average to .352 as the Rockies banged out 14 hits.

"I never look at the matchups and think, 'Oh no, here we go, we're in trouble,'" Holliday said. "Obviously, Schilling's a great pitcher and to beat him is good for our team and good for our confidence. You don't look at it and think it's a great feat.

"We won, which is great, but we've got to win (Thursday) and try to win the series."

By the end of the first inning, Schilling had already surrendered twice as many hits as his masterpiece last Thursday in Oakland, allowing the Rockies to gain the lead for good on an RBI double by Garrett Atkins.

After Julio Lugo's error helped the Rockies in the first, another Red Sox miscue aided Colorado an inning later. Following an RBI single by Matsui that scored Yorvit Torreabla, Mike Lowell's bad throw on Holliday's infield single plated Tulowitzki.

"It was just one of those nights, started off weird, got it under control and then just kind of let it get away," Schilling said. "We played a sloppy first two innings all around but we settled in."

Down, 3-0, the Red Sox mounted a comeback with single runs in the second and third, including Lowell's second-inning solo homer into the Green Monster seats in left on a hanging breaking ball from Fogg.

Fogg worked his way out of further trouble in the third when he fanned J.D. Drew with the bases loaded.

It was a big pitch for me because it let us keep the lead and we got a little bit of momentum going and Hawpe hit a big home run," Fogg said. "It's always nice to get that extra three-run cushion right there when you're going out there for the fifth inning. Five-and-dive is not the ideal way to get wins but I'll take it right now."

"He kind of wiggled throughout, Colorado manager Clint Hurdle said. "He put some zeroes up but he pitched out of the stretch quite a bit. We talked about that when he came out. He wasn't quite aware of the fact that he had that many pitches. He had 98 pitches after five innings. He made pitches when he had to. He bent a little but he didn't break."

But Schilling (6-3) didn't have lasting power on this night. After a scoreless third and fourth, the heart of the Rockies' order got to the Red Sox ace in the fifth.

After leadoff singles by Matsui and Holliday, Schilling appeared close to getting out trouble by retiring Helton to fly to center and striking out Atkins. But Schilling threw a hanging changeup to Hawpe, who smashed it 10 rows deep to the grandstands in right for his ninth homer and a 6-2 advantage.

"He just made a mistake," Hawpe said. "He left a changeup up over the plate. He had thrown me four or five different pitches through my first two at-bats so going up there I had no clue what to look for but got a mistake out over the plate."

"You're one pitch away," a frustrated Schilling said of Colorado's two-out damage. "You're one pitch away every at-bat, every hitter. Not being able to make that, it just makes a traumatic difference, because a lot of times you make those pitches."

Schilling's night was done after five innings. He allowed nine hits and six runs - five earned. He walked one and struck out five.

"He brings a one-hitter into the game, gets a nice jam shot and he is already pitching out of the stretch," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "Trying to stay away from them scoring. It's 3-2 and we strand the runner (in the third). You can feel us coming back and then the first-pitch changeup to Hawpe. He jumped all over it. It went from 3-2 to 6-2 and then they just added on."

Helton, hitless in his first six at-bats of the series, broke out of his slump in the sixth with a three-run double that put Colorado ahead, 9-2. His four RBI matched his output from his previous 27 games.

"That's something that we've kind of struggled with this year, adding on runs," Helton said. "We did a good job of it tonight."

Fogg (2-5) was lifted after five innings, earning his first win since April 25 against the Mets. In breaking a personal four-game losing streak, the righthander held the Red Sox to seven hits and two runs, allowing one walk while striking out four.

The trio of Coco Crisp, Drew and Julio Lugo continued to struggle for the Red Sox, going a collective 0-for-11 with three strikeouts and eight left on base.