After a subpar first half, Todd Helton has taken a different approach to hitting.
Helton homered twice and drove in three runs Friday night, and Garrett Atkins added a three-run shot to lead the Rockies to an 11-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field.
Helton was hitting .264 with six home runs on June 30. Since then he has batted .365 with 11 homers.
“I’m not trying to do too much and it’s yielded some pretty good results,” he said. “When I go up and swing hard and if I do hit it, I usually hook it foul. So I decided to slow myself down. It’s been working out.”
Atkins matched a career high with four RBIs, and Helton had two of Colorado’s 13 hits.
“I’d say he’s been pretty good for us,” Colorado manager Clint Hurdle said. “And he’s off to a pretty good September.”
Sunny Kim (4-2) worked 5 1/3 innings for the win, allowing one run and six hits. The only run he gave up came on Mike Edwards’ third homer.
“The fact is, Kim pitched without a fastball or command of it,” Hurdle said. “That’s usually a recipe for disaster in this park.”
Jose Acevedo pitched three innings for his first major-league save as Los Angeles remained six games behind first-place San Diego in the NL West.
Loser Jeff Weaver (13-9) gave up six runs and eight hits in five innings, failing to get his career-best 14th win. Weaver had won six straight decisions and hadn’t lost in 10 starts.
“We had opportunities for this game to be different than it was,” Los Angeles manager Jim Tracy said. “We let it get away from us and that happened in the top of the first inning.”
