Rockies Defeat Arizona 4-1 for 3-0 Edge in NLCS: Colorado Could Advance to World Series With Win Ton

Oct 15, 06:39 AM

Current Headlines: By Brian Gomez, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Oct. 15--DENVER -- In the bitter cold and the unrelenting rain, one swing of the bat Sunday put the Colorado Rockies one win from their first World Series berth.

Yorvit Torrealba broke a 1-1 tie with a three-run home run in the sixth inning, and the Rockies beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 4-1 at Coors Field to take a 3-0 lead in the National League Championship Series.

In Game 4 of the best-of-seven series at 8:18 tonight, Colorado will start Franklin Morales and Arizona will start Micah Owings. If necessary, Game 5 would be Wednesday night, also at Coors Field.

The Rockies have won 20 of their past 21 games, nine in a row and all six of the postseason. Only one team in major league history -- the 2004 Boston Red Sox -- has rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win a postseason series.

Torrealba's homer came with two outs after Arizona starter Livan Hernandez lost control in the sixth. Hernandez walked Todd Helton to lead off the inning and gave up a one-out single to Brad Hawpe before striking out Troy Tulowitzki.

In a seven-pitch battle against his former San Francisco Giants teammate, Hernandez mixed fastballs with curveballs, some of which were so slow they didn't register on the Coors Field radar gun. Torrealba fouled off a 60-mph curveball, then sent an 82-mph fastball into the left-field bleachers.

"I actually wasn't looking fastball. He tried to sneak a fastball inside around the middle, and I hit it good," said Torrealba, who is 8-for-21 with seven RBIs in the postseason. "It was a line drive. I was praying it would leave the yard."

A steady rain fell throughout the game on an announced sellout crowd of 50,137, forcing groundskeepers to spread piles of dirt on the infield between innings. The temperature dropped from 43 degrees at first pitch to 39 by the fourth inning.

In his first postseason start, Rockies pitcher Josh Fogg wasn't dominant but was effective, allowing one run on seven hits with three strikeouts in six innings. The run came on Mark Reynolds' solo homer that tied the score in the fourth after Fogg was aided by a defense that turned double plays the first three innings.

After Fogg left, Jeremy Affeldt and Brian Fuentes combined for a scoreless seventh and eighth. Manny Corpas -- almost the goat of Game 2 after he blew a save -- retired the side in order in the ninth.

"With the offense we have, we have a chance to go out there and score runs," said Fogg, who improved to 7-1 against Arizona. "If you can keep it close as long as you can, someone is going to come through with a big hit, and Yorvit did it for us." Rockies left fielder Matt Holliday said he's not looking toward the World Series.

"We've still got a lot of work to do," said Holliday, whose first-inning home run gave Colorado a 1-0 lead. "We have to keep fighting and keep scratching, try to win a game." Said Tulowitzki: "It's closer, and you can kind of taste it. But I know the Diamondbacks aren't going to give up. They're not going to hand us any games."

-----

To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.gazette.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.