Garrett Atkins’ run-scoring single capped a four-run rally in the ninth inning, lifting the Colorado Rockies over the San Francisco Giants 9-8 on Friday night.
The Giants had an 8-5 lead going into the ninth but Tim Worrell (2-1) failed to record an out and was tagged for four earned runs.
Eli Marrero led off the ninth with a home run and Worrell gave up singles to Luis Gonzalez, Danny Ardoin and pinch-hitter Choo Freeman. Steve Kline then relieved Worrell and struck out Cory Sullivan.
Armando Benitez, who came off the disabled list Thursday night after recovering from left knee bursitis, followed Kline. He gave up a sacrifice fly to Clint Barmes and an RBI single to Holliday before surrendering Atkins’ game-winner.
David Cortes (2-0) picked up the win with a perfect ninth inning.
The Rockies played without slugger Todd Helton, who was hospitalized Friday night with stomach discomfort. The team said tests failed to determine a reason for his fever and cramps that he’d had for 48 hours.
Before Colorado’s comeback, Pedro Feliz stood to be San Francisco’s hero. The third baseman hit his first two homers of the season and drove five runs.
Barry Bonds’ search for his lost power stroke didn’t end in the thin air of downtown Denver, at least not in the series opener. He went 0-for-2 with three walks and watched his homerless start stretch to 12 games and 30 at-bats.
In 1998, Bonds didn’t homer until his 13th game, the longest season-opening drought when healthy of his career.
Matt Holliday’s three-run homer off Jason Schmidt put the Rockies ahead 4-0 in the third, and Feliz cut the deficit in half with his first homer of the season, a 433-foot shot to left an inning later. Feliz’s second drive was a three-run homer that snapped a 4-4 tie in the fifth.
Both of his homers came off Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings, who was tagged for seven earned runs and eight hits over six innings.
He was relieved by Miguel Asencio, who pitched a scoreless seventh inning in his first major league appearance in nearly three years.
Schmidt allowed five runs, all earned, and seven hits in seven innings.
Despite his early struggles, Bonds isn’t showing signs of a decline, Giants manager Felipe Alou insisted.
“They are not pitching to an old bat,” Alou said. “He can hit. He still has a bat that is real quick. That is where the danger is. They still have to get him with changeups and hoping he goes after a bad pitch or walk him. The bat speed is the same.” So far, the ball just isn’t traveling as far.
In his first at-bat, Bonds, who leads opposing players with 24 homers at Coors Field, sent a fastball more than 400 feet away to dead center for a long third out.
He would get just one other cut all night as the Rockies didn’t change their pitching philosophy with Bonds scuffling.
“I told my guys in the meeting today, man, it’s like a snake.
If somebody tells me it’s dead, I’m going to run over it three times before I believe it,” Colorado manger Clint Hurdle said.
“You tell me he’s not swinging the bat good, I’ll believe it when he’s left here and we’ve been able to handle him.” Hurdle said it’s just a matter of time before Bonds makes up for his early struggles and he had no intention of letting Bonds off the hook against his team.
“We will pitch to him only when we feel it’s practical,” Hurdle said.
Sure enough, Bonds drew intentional walks in the third and fifth innings and an unintentional one in the seventh, although that might have been attributed more to nerves as Asencio, two years removed from elbow surgery, was making his first major league appearance since May 2003.
The strategy on Bonds backfired in the fifth, when Jennings also walked Moises Alou to load the bases with one out and Colorado clinging to a 4-2 lead. Lance Niekro’s fly to left dropped just in front of Holliday, who threw wildly past third, allowing Bonds to score the tying run. Feliz followed with his three-run homer for a 7-4 lead.
Notes:@ The Giants are 7-2 with Bonds and Alou in the starting lineup. … Feliz has six multihomer games in his career and 12 career homers at Coors. … Bonds swung at two of the 17 pitches he saw.
