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Fogg, Rockies cool down red-hot Yankees

Jun 20, 2007 - 5:40 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- When the New York Yankees entered Coors Field, balls were expected to fly out of the park. Josh Fogg made sure that didn't happen.

Fogg tossed seven strong innings and the Colorado Rockies hung on for a 3-1 victory Tuesday night over the Yankees, who suffered just their fourth defeat in their last 18 contests.

Yorvit Torrealba blasted his third homer of the season for the Rockies (36-34), who have won 11 of their last 15 games to move two games over .500 and remain in contention in the crowded National League West.

"It's a good ballgame to win, in front of a large crowd," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "It was a good ballgame for us. We showed up well, we pitched well, we got some hits we needed. We played some really good defense."

A notoriously hitter-friendly park, Coors Field hosted an unexpected pitchers' duel in the opener of this interleague matchup. The Yankees, who boast one of the most powerful lineups in baseball, managed only seven hits.

Colorado's home park, which sits in the thin air of the "Mile High City," has not allowed as many blasts in recent years, partly due to a humidor that the Rockies now keep baseballs in before and after the game.

But on Tuesday, the Yankees were kept in the park thanks to Fogg (3-5), who yielded just one run and four hits, striking out three and walking one. He slowed down the red-hot Alex Rodriguez, who leads the majors in homers (27) and RBI (73), allowing just a first-inning single before two impressive strikeouts against the slugger.

"I pretty much stayed hard on him all night, and I think both at-bats where I struck him out, I had him guessing a little bit," Fogg said.

"We just couldn't get anything going," Yankees catcher Jorge Posada said. "We couldn't get a rally going, we couldn't get anyone on base. He attacked the zone and we had pretty good at-bats we just couldn't get anything off him."

The righthander defeated New York's archrival, the Boston Red Sox, in his last start and led the Rockies to their fourth straight victory when he toes the rubber. But he picked up the win thanks to some clutch pitching from the bullpen.

"It's been two games that are big for our team," Fogg said. "We have to beat the best to be competitive in this division. The offense did a great job by getting some big two-out hits, and we played great defense."

After Fogg left in the eighth, Melky Cabrera sandwiched a seemingly harmless single between flyouts by Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter. But reliever Manny Corpas then yielded a single to Bobby Abreu and a walk to Rodriguez to load the bases, forcing Corpas from the game in favor of LaTroy Hawkins.

Hawkins then retired the surging Posada, who was getting a rare start at first base to keep his bat in the lineup on his normal offday. The veteran catcher ripped a hard grounder at rookie shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who forced Rodriguez at second to end the threat.

"We had a couple of opportunities, second and third with no one out and we get the one run, and the bases loaded with two out, and Jorge hit it on the button but their shortstop made a good play," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

Colorado closer Brian Fuentes pitched the ninth for his 19th save.

The Yankees started the scoring in the second. After Rodriguez started the inning with a single, and Posada followed with a double, Hideki Matsui knocked in Rodriguez with a grounder to shortstop.

The Rockies tied the game one inning later on Garrett Atkins' RBI single of Yankees starter Mike Mussina. Colorado then snapped the tie with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, capped by Torrealba's solo blast in the sixth to make it 3-1.

Mussina yielded three runs and seven hits in six frames, striking out six and walking two.

"You go out there and pitch the best game you can pitch, but it just wasn't good enough," Mussina said. "We couldn't get anything going offensively and we really had only one or two chances to score any runs. It just didn't work out."