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Rockies head home in search of a sweep

Oct 6, 2007 - 1:04 PM Philadelphia at Colorado 9:37 pm EDT National League Division Series Rockies lead, 2-0

DENVER (Ticker) - The Colorado Rockies are looking more and more like the team of destiny this postseason, and that may spell doom for the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Rockies will host the Phillies on Saturday in Game Three of the best-of-five National League Division Series, needing a win to move on to the first NL Championship Series in franchise history.

Kaz Matsui played the unlikely hero in the Game Two victory for Colorado, clubbing a grand slam and driving in five runs to lead Colorado to a 10-5 victory. Yorvit Torrealba drove in two runs for the Rockies, who are playing in the postseason for just the second time in the 15-year history of the franchise.

"We know how good (the Phillies) play at home," Torrealba said. "To be able to win two games here is huge. In our mind, all we wanted to do was just win at least one out of two. It's great."

Matsui finished the game a single short of the cycle, flying out to center field in his final at-bat in the eighth inning. Not known for his power, the Japanese leadoff hitter had just four homers in the regular season, but gave the Rockies a 6-3 lead in the fourth when he greeted righthanded reliever Kyle Lohse with a grand slam over the wall in right field.

Colorado will go for the sweep with 23-year-old Ubaldo Jimenez (4-4, 4.28 ERA). The righthander became a fixture in the Rockies rotation after the All-Star break and allowed three runs or less in 12 of his 15 starts in 2007.

"It's exciting to be out there, knowing if we win we're going to go to the next stage, so I feel happy, very happy," Jimenez said. "I'm going to feel really excited about it, but I'm going to slow everything down, so I can execute my pitches and go out there and compete. It's going to be fun, like, having so many people rooting for us. It's going to be fun!"

Jimenez surrendered two runs and four hits in six innings to the Phillies on September 10, but did not factor in the decision.

Colorado manager Clint Hurdle, who has a roster consisting of just four players with more than six years of major league experience, has no problem trusting the youngster.

"There has been a couple of things that have jumped out to us about Ubaldo," Hurdle said. "Number one, the maturation of the pitching poise that we saw early in spring training to this point now. I've watched him instructionally the last couple of winters, a lot of guys didn't get to see him. He came into spring training on the outside looking in, trying to get attention.

After watching a pair of youngsters drop the opening two games of the series, Philadelphia will look to 44-year-old Jamie Moyer (14-12, 5.01) with its season on the line.

The veteran lefthander was the starter on the final day of the regular season last Sunday, and allowed an unearned run in 5 1/3 innings as the Phillies clinched a playoff spot. However, he is 0-4 with a 5.54 ERA in his career against the Rockies.

"We play tomorrow, we win, we play Sunday; we lose, we go home," Moyer said of his team's 0-2 deficit in the best-of-five NLDS. "It's - unfortunately that's the way it is. But we've played hard. We have a lot to be proud of, the way we played this season, the way we fought back, the way we came back and won our division, and, you know, the way I look at it we're not out of this."