Washington – During the fourth inning Wednesday night, Byung-Hyun Kim meandered slowly off the mound toward the Rockies’ dugout as Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” danced through the outdated speakers at RFK Stadium.
The musical selection quickly veered from comedic to ironic: Beyond Kim’s outing, little went wrong for the Rockies in their bare-knuckled, 14-8 victory that gave them a shot at sweeping the four-game series today. And the Nationals spent the next two hours morphing into the Washington Generals.
This was an enthralling game, particularly if anyone at the front of the Rockies’ lineup happens to dot the roster of your fantasy league team. Colorado’s top five hitters combined to go 14-for- 20 with 12 RBIs.
Jamey Carroll, Garrett Atkins and Todd Helton homered. Carroll reached five times, scored four runs and recorded three hits. Matt Holliday, chasing his first batting title, inflated his average to .348 with four hits. And all Cory Sullivan did was tie a major-league record with four sacrifice bunts.
“I have played a lot of games at Coors Field like this,” Helton said after the Rockies produced 18 hits, tying a season best, and their highest road run total this year. “But not many like this out here.”
Visiting ballparks used to be where the Rockies’ seasons went to die. The Rockies were baseball’s equivalent of a homecoming opponent, showing up with smiles and leaving in a bag of lumps. This season they have flipped the script, going 17-16, their most compelling argument of legitimacy as a contender.
“The difference is that we have a lot of guys with line-drive swings, and that seems to help us,” Atkins said. “We aren’t trying to get the ball in the air like you might at home. And the attitude is that it doesn’t matter where we play, we believe we can win.”
That confidence, if not resolve, was demonstrated in the Rockies’ third consecutive victory, which shoved them above .500 for the first time since May 31. The Rockies erased a 3-0 deficit with a five-run third inning, defined by Atkins’ three-run crush that nearly tagged the Chevy billboard in left field.
With Kim’s contribution – two hits, not sharp pitches – an 8-6 lead dissolved into a tie game. At that point anything seemed possible. Groused Nationals manager Frank Robinson, “The pitching didn’t do the job, but we should have scored 15 runs ourselves.”
Nothing spoke to the absurdity or the insecurity of a lead more than this: Sullivan put down his fourth sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning with Colorado holding a 12-8 advantage.
“Hitting in front of Helton, it doesn’t surprise me,” Sullivan said. “The way the guys are swinging the bat, I don’t mind at all.”
Rockies manager Clint Hurdle referred to the game as weird. It was left to reliever Tom Martin to restore sanity. For the first time in his career, he pitched in four innings. That’s what he said he would remember most, not snapping baseball’s longest active streak of appearances (109) without a win.
“I usually throw (40) pitches in one inning,” Martin joked after his first victory since Sept. 23, 2003.
Staff writer Troy Renck can be reached at 303-820-5457 or trenck@denverpost.com.
