The Colorado Rockies' offense was clicking again in their 7-5 Wednesday victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers. For the second game in a row, Troy Tulowitzki hit a home run. His two-run home run in the fourth inning off reliever Blake Hawksworth put the Rockies up, 7-4. Todd Helton hit his 334th career home run, a three-run shot, in the third inning to put Rockies back in the lead.
The Rockies got out to an early 2-0 lead in the first inning when Seth Smith doubled and then scored on a Carlos Gonzalez double, A few batters later Jose Lopez singled in Gonzalez for the 2-0 lead.
The starting pitching, though, was not as crisp for the Rockies. The Rockies started Jason Hammel, who used seven pitches to get out of the first inning. Then he ran into trouble in the second inning when he allowed a home run to James Loney. Things got dicier in the third inning when Hammel allowed a leadoff home run to Rod Barajas. Following a Rafael Furcal walk, Casey Blake singled the runner in with a triple. Andre Ethier pushed Blake across home plate on a single. Hammel left after five innings of work.
Franklin Morales made his first appearance of the season and looked dominant on the mound. He struck out two and induced a pop out in the sixth inning and then followed that up with a scoreless seventh. He was able to throw his pitches for strikes (25 of 34). Matt Lindstrom allowed a run in the eighth inning before giving way to Huston Street in the ninth. It was shaky again for Street, allowing back-to-back singles to start the inning before Carlos Gonzalez made a nice catch to prevent at least one runner, possibly both, from scoring. He picked up his third save by striking out the last two batters.
The Dodgers' Chad Billingsley left the game after three innings of work, allowing five runs. Outside of the home run Hawksworth surrendered, Kenley Jansen and Matt Guerrier each threw two scoreless innings of relief.
The Rockies head to Pittsburgh to face the Pirates in a four-game series.