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Gomes homers twice as Devil Rays avoid series sweep

Jun 18, 2007 - 12:32 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Jonny Gomes certainly is making a case for more playing time.

Gomes blasted a pair of two-run homers and Carl Crawford matched a season high with four hits as the Tampa Bay Devil Rays rallied for a 7-4 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Sunday.

It was the first multi-homer game of the season and the fourth career for Gomes, who batted just .184 over his first 19 games before being sent to the minors in late May.

But the slugging outfielder was recalled from Class AAA Durham on Thursday and has capitalized on the opportunity to play since then, batting .571 (8-for-14) with three homers and six RBI in four games.

"It's going to be like that for a while," Gomes said. "I've just got to keep it going all the way to September. A guy on a mission is a guy you have to be to stay up here."

"He wants to play every day," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said. "He's started out slowly, went down to Durham and got some things in order, came back up and is taking advantage of it. You wouldn't expect anything less from him."

Gomes gave Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead in the second inning with his first homer of the contest and his third of the season, a towering two-run shot to left-center field against Colorado starter Aaron Cook (4-4).

"I never faced (Cook) before," Gomes said. "When you are faced with that, you just try to get the first pitches you see. Lucky for me, I was able to get it out."

The Rockies evened the score in the bottom of the frame and took a 3-2 lead in the third on Matt Holliday's solo homer - his 12th of the campaign.

But the Devil Rays tied the game at 3-3 in the fifth and took the lead for good in the sixth thanks to Carlos Pena, who belted his team-leading 16th homer off Cook to make it 4-3 with two outs.

"It felt great," said Pena, who crushed the ball into the upper deck at Coors Field. "That was definitely a good one. To be honest, I didn't think it would go that far. When you are a kid, you play to hit home runs in the upper deck, so it was cool to see it happen."

"It was prodigious," Maddon said. "I did call it. I said if anyone could go upper deck, it was Pena."

After Delmon Young singled, Gomes pushed the advantage to 6-3 by lining Cook's 2-1 offering over the wall in left field.

Pena plated Crawford with an RBI double in the eighth and Ty Wigginton had three hits for the Devil Rays, who snapped a four-game skid and avoided being swept in this three-game interleague series.

Tampa Bay provided enough support for starter Scott Kazmir (5-3) to pick up his third win in his last four decisions. The lefthander worked six innings, allowing three runs, six hits and four walks with five strikeouts.

"It's tough pitching here," Kazmir said. "There are not too many routine fly balls here - everything is a challenge. I just wanted to pound the strike zone and get ahead of hitters.

"Early on, I wasn't snapping off my fastball and it made it tough to get my accuracy. But as the game went on, I had more command and authority with my pitches."

Righthanders Jay Witasick and Gary Glover worked the seventh and eighth, respectively, to set up closer Al Reyes, who logged a perfect ninth to record his 16th save.

"We had an outstanding pitching performance today," Pena said. "That was the difference. We held them to four runs, which is not easy to do. So our guys deserve the credit."

Kazmir avoided major damage in the fifth, when the Rockies loaded the bases thanks to a leadoff hit and a pair of one-out walks. But Kazmir escaped the inning unscathed by inducing Garrett Atkins to ground into an inning-ending double play.

"That was huge," Kazmir said. "That was a tough situation, and when we were able to get out of that one, it was a real momentum boost for us. Games like this are all about momentum, and that really gave us a lift."

"You have to come through in those spots," Atkins said. "Unfortunately I wasn't able to get us runs in that situation."

Cook worked six frames, yielding six runs and 10 hits with no walks and no strikeouts.

"I stunk," Cook said. "I've had trouble commanding pitches. You get balls up in the zone, they get hit hard. I got my fair share of ground balls. But the ones between the outs were hard-hit home runs. It's just one of those days. I just had a bad game."

Kaz Matsui and Brad Hawpe each hit a solo homer for the Rockies, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.

"It wasn't our day today," Colorado manager Clint Hurdle said. "We gave up too many hits, too many big hits. We had some big hits of our own, but not at the right times."