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De La Rosa uses arm, bat to help Rockies down Reds

Jul 27, 2008 - 4:58 AM By Douglas Tifft PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

CINCINNATI (Ticker) -- Jorge De La Rosa tossed 6 2/3 solid innings and drove in a pair of runs during a four-run fifth as the Colorado Rockies rolled to a 5-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday.

De La Rosa (5-5) allowed one run and two hits with eight strikeouts and five walks to notch his second straight win. The righthander's lone mistake came in the fourth, when Ken Griffey Jr. tied the game at 1-1 with his 607th career home run, putting him two behind Sammy Sosa for fifth on the all-time list.

"I think that I have thrown more quality stuff (lately). I had quality stuff today and mixed it up well," De La Rosa said.

De La Rosa followed an outing in which he allowed one run in six innings with his first road win of the season in large part to a change in his attitude on the mound.

"What I have basically been trying to do is slow him down. Sometimes he gets in that mode where he wants to throw harder," Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba said of De La Rosa. "He was just trying too hard. Now he calms down and takes a deep breath before each pitch."

After pummeling Reds ace Edinson Volquez for 15 hits Friday night, the Rockies battered rookie Homer Bailey (0-4) for 15 more in 4 2/3 innings. Every starter had a hit for Colorado, which has won eight of nine and recorded at least 11 hits in each of its last seven games.

"We started (the season) really slow, but there is no doubt that there is the potential in this room," Torrealba said. "Now it seems like everybody is starting to get hot at the same time. That's huge."

While the bats were hot, the hits did not add up early as Colorado mustered just one run on 12 singles until the decisive fifth frame.

"Sometimes we do hit the long ball, but sometimes we work counts, grind out some at-bats and get base hits," Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki said of his team recording just one extra-base hit.

A big reason the Rockies failed to score early was the Reds' defense. Torrealba was thrown out at home by rookie center fielder Jay Bruce in the fourth and Griffey got Brad Hawpe at the plate in the fifth before Colorado broke through.

After Hawpe was thrown out, Tulowitzki singled home a run and Torrealba followed suit. De La Rosa capped the outburst with a two-run, opposite-field single to left for a 5-1 lead.

"The big hit was the one by (De La Rosa)," Reds manager Dusty Baker said. "That made it 5-1. I didn't want to burn a guy in my bullpen to get the pitcher out. He was 1-for-20 as a hitter this year, but that was a big one."

De La Rosa's hit spelled the end of the night for Bailey (0-4), who allowed the most hits by a Reds righthander since Mario Soto yielded 15 on September 6, 1982 against Los Angeles. Bailey has not won since April 30 - a span of 16 starts between the minors and majors.

"They were teeing off on him big time," Baker said. "A lot of them were in the heart of the plate, not high, not low. He hung a couple sliders. He just wasn't making quality pitches tonight. You've got to be better than that."

Colorado took a 1-0 lead in the second, when Tulowitzki and Torrealba each hit one-out singles. After a sacrifice, Tulowitzki scored on a throwing error by third baseman Edwin Encarnacion.