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Spilborghs' late heroics send Rockies past Twins

May 18, 2008 - 5:55 AM By Brady Delander PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) - Jeff Baker was seeing double Saturday night, so his teammates helped him find his way home.

Stymied by Minnesota Twins starter Livan Hernandez through the first five innings of the game, the Colorado Rockies surged late for a 3-2 victory at Coors Field.

With the win, Colorado snapped a six-game losing streak.

Baker hit a leadoff doubles in the sixth to ended Hernandez's bid for a perfect game, and did so again in the eighth. After both occasions, Baker came around to score on singles - including the game-winning RBI by Ryan Spilborghs in the eighth.

"As a pinch hitter, you're not expected to get a hit all the time, so I try to turn that pressure onto the pitcher," said Spilborghs, who is 11-for-28 with runners in scoring position this season.

"It's something I take a lot of pride in. Obviously, off guys like (Hernandez) where you have to be really patient, I enjoy it. I make sure guys have to throw their strikes because I'm not going to be too aggressive out of the zone."

Matt Herges (2-0), who surrendered two runs and three hits over two innings, earned the win. Closer Brian Fuentes took the ball in the ninth and collected his fifth save in seven chances, but not before putting the go-ahead run on base and the tying run at third.

Hernandez (6-2) sat down the first 15 batters he faced before falling apart. Colorado hitters were unable to solve the righthander until the sixth, when Baker hit a deep fly ball along the left field line that eluded a diving effort from Minnesota's Delmon Young.

"That was a great performance by our starter," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "They got a couple off of him, but we needed Livan to go deep into the game. We needed that for the club. We couldn't come up with the big hit, but we had some chances late. Really, we couldn't ask for much more."

Baker took second base and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Yorvit Torrealba. Willy Taveras hit a hard, two-out single to right field to score Baker and give Colorado a 1-0 lead.

The Twins were held scoreless for the first six innings by Rockies starter Greg Reynolds, who took a seat before the seventh inning having yielded just three hits.

"Reynolds pitched a wonderful ballgame ... but I felt it was necessary to score a run in to win the game, so I pulled him for a pinch hitter in the sixth," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "His command was good, he was focused, and he pitched with a slow heartbeat out there.

"We seem to score late much easier than we score earlier for whatever reason. We need to improve upon that."

Herges stepped in and promptly surrendered a single to Young and a follow-up double to Adam Everett.

With Young at third, Hernandez dropped a safety squeeze bunt down the first-base line to score Young. Brendan Harris followed with a grounder through the infield to right field, scoring Everett and putting the Twins up, 2-1.

Colorado evened the score in the bottom half of the seventh. Matt Holliday led off with a double, moved to third on a single by Todd Helton and scored on a sacrifice fly from Garrett Atkins.

In a near replay of the sixth inning, Baker led off the eighth with a double to the corner in right field and advanced to third on another sacrifice bunt from Torrealba. But this time, it was Spilborghs - not Taveras - who laced an RBI single up the middle to score Baker and the put the Rockies ahead, 3-2.

"Any time you can get a leadoff double for us, it's huge," Baker said. "Our offense isn't clicking the way it could be ... but we got some clutch hitting tonight."