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Hawpe drives in four runs as Rockies win 11th straight

Sep 28, 2007 - 6:19 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Brad Hawpe has been a one-man wrecking crew of late, but he got plenty of help on Thursday.

Hawpe homered and drove in four runs, and Garrett Atkins and Todd Helton also homered as the Colorado Rockies extended their franchise record-high winning streak to 11 games with a 10-4 victory over the hapless Los Angeles Dodgers.

Franklin Morales extended his scoreless streak to 20 1/3 innings for the Rockies, who kept pace in both the wild card and National League West Division standings.

Colorado (87-72) remained tied with Philadelphia (87-72) at one game behind San Diego (88-71) in the wild card and two games back of Arizona (89-70) in the NL West with three games to play. The Rockies start a season-ending three-game series at home with the Diamondbacks on Friday.

"We just keep on playing good baseball and winning games," Helton said. "It would be great if we can keep the winning streak going for three more games."

Hawpe, who entered hitting .448 (13-for-29) with three homers - including a walkoff blast - and 11 RBI in his last seven games, followed Atkins' two-run homer in the fourth with his 29th of the season off Dodgers starter Esteban Loaiza.

"Right now it just seems like everyone in our lineup is hitting the ball good and driving guys in," Hawpe said. "I don't think I have ever been on a team that is playing such good baseball, and it couldn't have come at a better time."

After Helton hit a two-run homer in the sixth off Scott Proctor that provided a 6-3 edge, Hawpe put an exclamation point on the major league's longest winning streak this season with a three-run double in the eighth that opened a 10-4 edge.

"This was a big series for us, because we knew that the Dodgers weren't going to give up and make us work for every win," Helton said.

The offense provided enough support for Morales (3-2), who came into the game with 17 scoreless frames over his previous three starts. He had a 3-0 lead until surrendering a pair of runs in the fourth and left after allowing the first two runners in the sixth to score.

"Just continue to get solid pitching performances and come up with those innings where we put up a few runs and put pressure on the other team," Hurdle said.

The rookie lefthander was charged with three runs and four hits with a walk and four strikeouts.

"(Morales) went right after those guys tonight and was doing a good job mixing up his pitches and working in and out of the zone," Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba said.

"He's (Morales) showing us that he can pitch and come up big for us at such a young age," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.

Loaiza (1-4), who entered having allowed seven homers in 19 innings in his four starts since being acquired from the Oakland Athletics, was charged with three runs and five hits - two homers - in 3 2/3 innings.

James Loney had two hits and drove in three runs for the Dodgers, who have lost 10 of their last 11.

"It just seems like we can't get anything going right now on both sides of the ball," Dodgers manager Grady Little said. "We just want to go out and try to win the last series of the season and end the season on a good note going into next year."