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Holliday, Hawpe power Rockies past Dodgers

Sep 20, 2007 - 5:41 AM DENVER (Ticker) -- Brad Hawpe and Matt Holliday made sure the Colorado Rockies kept alive their postseason hopes for at least one more night.

Hawpe put the Rockies on top with a two-run blast and Holliday turned in a two-homer performance to give the Rockies another dramatic victory, a 6-5 triumph over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Wednesday.

Yorvit Torrealba homered and Garrett Atkins had two hits for Colorado, which remained 4 1/2 games behind National League wild card-leading San Diego (84-67), which beat Pittsburgh on Wednesday.

The Rockies trailed, 5-4, in the eighth when Atkins singled to lead off the frame against Los Angeles set-up man Jonathan Broxton (4-4). Atkins was replaced by the speedy Kaz Matsui, who stole second before Hawpe lifted a 3-2 pitch deep into the right field seats for his 26th homer of the year, giving Colorado a 6-5 lead.

"When I hit it, I had a pretty good feeling it was gone," Hawpe said. "It felt great, but we still had another inning to play. I couldn't over-celebrate, I just had to be excited."

It was the second night in a row the Rockies have beaten the Dodgers in dramatic fashion. Todd Helton delivered a 9-8 victory with a walk-off blast on Tuesday.

"It's special for us," Hawpe said. "It's not something that you think about during the game. We're in it right now, we're a few games back, and this is something special. It's what you play for."

"Tonight was another situation where we took a knife to a gunfight," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "We got as much mileage as we could off our 12 singles and three extra-base hits, and they got as much mileage as they could from those balls in the seats."

Holliday has thrust himself into the forefront of the NL MVP discussion in the past two weeks, batting .463 (19-for-41) with 10 homers, 18 RBI and 17 runs scored over his last 11 games.

Holliday got to Dodgers starter Brad Penny for solo blasts in the first and third innings, giving the current NL batting leader 35 home runs on the season.

"He crushed those balls," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "Those were line drives. It's a pretty and powerful swing."

Penny was shaky at the start, allowing single runs in each of the first four innings, to put his team in an early 4-2 hole.

"Time is running out," Penny said. "We're in every game, but we're just not coming through at the end. I know it's tough when you're losing, but what can you do?"

The Dodgers climbed back on top in the sixth, when Penny legged out a grounder for an infield single, allowing Russell Martin to cross the plate with the tying run. Matt Kemp grounded out two batters later, plating Tony Abreu and giving Los Angeles a 5-4 advantage.

Josh Fogg started and allowed three runs in five frames for Colorado. The 30-year-old righthander has not suffered a loss since August 22.

Brian Fuentes (2-5) got the win for the Rockies and Manny Corpas pitched a scoreless ninth for his 16th save.

James Loney drove in three runs for the Dodgers (79-73), who have lost four games in a row to fall to five behind the Padres in the wild card race.