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Rockies pound Marlins, hang onto playoff hopes

Sep 16, 2007 - 11:36 PM By Brady Delander PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) -- It was inevitable, but football season officially appears to have taken hold in the Mile High City.

The Colorado Rockies provided some big hits and a glimmer of hope for the postseason, no matter how dim that prospect may now be, with a 13-0 victory over the Florida Marlins on Sunday.

Colorado (77-72) avoided a series sweep shelling by the Marlins with 20 hits, including a four-hit performance from Matt Holliday and the 300th career home run for Todd Helton.

Only 13 games remain on the regular-season schedule, and the Rockies trail three teams in the chase for the National League wild card. They remained 4 1/2 games behind wild card-leading San Diego (81-67) with the victory here.

"Mathematically, we're not out of the league race yet," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "But we've painted ourselves into a corner, we know that."

In front of a sparse crowd with the Denver Broncos also playing at home, Garrett Atkins and Chris Iannetta each hit home runs in the second inning to get the Rockies started with an early 4-0 lead.

Colorado began to pile on after that, opening the third inning with three consecutive singles to left field. After loading the bases with no outs, Florida starting pitcher Scott Olsen (9-14) walked in a run and was sent to the bench.

"Today felt better than every one of the last three or four starts," Olsen said. "But it just wasn't working."

Iannetta then added his fourth RBI of the game when he drove in Helton on an infield error before the inning ended with the Rockies ahead 6-0.

Olsen was charged with six runs and eight hits in two-plus frames, striking out one and walking two. The troubled lefthander is 0-5 over his last seven starts, and has allowed four runs or more in each of his last five outings.

It was more of the same in the fourth and fifth innings as Holliday lifted a two-run home run just over the left-field fence in the fourth, and Helton's three-run shot cleared the right-field fence in the following frame to push Colorado's lead to 11-0.

"300 - that's a lot of home runs," Helton said. "I'm very proud to reach that milestone, especially here at home. We came out and swung the bats well. It was a good day for us."

Add to that the pitching performance of rookie Franklin Morales (2-2), who faced the minimum numbers of batters through five innings, and the Rockies looked like playoff contenders.

Everybody in Colorado's starting lineup recorded a hit except for leadoff batter Jamey Carroll, and five recorded multiple hits.

Morales pitched six shutout innings and allowed three hits, all singles, on 74 pitches, striking out five and not issuing a walk. Helton finished 3-for-4 with three RBI, and Atkins went 3-for-4 with the home run and an RBI.

Florida's best chance to avoid the shutout came after a brief lightning delay in the sixth inning.

Matt Treanor and Brett Carroll opened with singles and moved over to second and third base on a groundout by Reggie Abercrombie. But Morales forced Ramirez to pop up and struck out Dan Uggla swinging to end the threat.