• Recap
• Bleachers

Jimenez strong, Hawpe drives in two as Rockies top Marlins

Aug 2, 2008 - 3:31 AM By Chris Stock PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

MIAMI (Ticker) -- Ubaldo Jimenez won his fourth straight start and Brad Hawpe drove in a pair of runs to lead the Colorado Rockies to a 5-2 victory over the Florida Marlins on Friday night.

Jimenez (8-9) threw seven scoreless innings, allowing two hits and three walks. The 24-year old righthander has won six of his last seven starts.

Chris Iannetta drove in a pair of runs and Omar Quintanilla had an RBI single in a three-run fifth for the Rockies, who shut down the Marlins after losing Thursday's opener, 12-2.

"He (Jimenez) had as nasty of stuff as we have seen this all year," Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "The fastball was 97 with some life and the slider had some tail. You have to tip your hat to him, he was terrific."

Josh Willingham had an RBI single and Mike Jacobs added a sacrifice fly for Florida (58-52), which still trails the National League East-leading Philadelphia Phillies (59-50) by 1 1/2 games. The Phillies lost to St. Louis on Friday.

Hawpe opened the scoring with a two-run single in the third inning off rookie starter Chris Volstad (2-2).

Volstad ran into some trouble in the fifth, giving up a leadoff base hit to Troy Tulowitzki and a double to Matt Holliday. After Volstad retired the next two batters out, Ian Stewart walked to load the bases. Iannetta then delivered a two-run single with through the left side of the infield. Quintanilla followed with an RBI single to give the Rockies a commanding 5-0 lead.

"I put the barrel on the ball and it found a hole," Quintanilla said. "The best way to hit the ball is all over the field."

Volstad allowed five runs - four earned - and eight hits in five innings. The 21-year-old struck out six and walked three.

"You've got to make the pitches with two outs if you want to win games," Volstad said.

"You look at the linescore and you say he didn't pitch real well, but I think he'll take this as an experience start and learn something from it," Gonzalez said.

The Marlins had their best opportunity to get back into the game in the fifth as All-Star Hanley Ramirez stepped to the plate with the bases loaded, but Jimenez struck him out with a drop-down slider to end the inning.

"I throw it every once in a while when I know I need it," Jimenez said "There are some teams that I know that haven't seen it so that's why I throw it. Hanley had never saw it before. It was exciting. We played on the same team in the Dominican."

Florida threatened in the ninth against Taylor Buchholz, who failed to record an out, but Brian Fuentes entered to notch his 19th save in 23 chances.