Los Angeles – Matt Holliday homered to cap a six-run fifth, Byung-Hyun Kim worked 6 2/3 solid innings to earn his first win in over a month, and the Colorado Rockies beat Los Angeles 12-5 on Sunday to snap the Dodgers’ seven-game winning streak.
Rookie Troy Tulowitzki had four of Colorado’s 18 hits, Garrett Atkins had three and Kaz Matsui drove in three runs for the Rockies, who lost their previous nine road games – one shy of the franchise record.
While the Rockies were winning for just the fourth time in 15 games, the NL West-leading Dodgers were losing for only the eighth time in their last 34. Their lead over second-place San Diego was reduced to three games.
Six of the first seven Colorado batters hit safely and scored in the fifth, when the Rockies took a 7-2 lead and chased Aaron Sele (7-6).
Cory Sullivan and Tulowitzki singled and Kim sacrificed before Matsui hit a two-run triple to put the Rockies ahead for good. Todd Helton doubled to drive in Matsui and Atkins hit an RBI single to knock out Sele. Holliday greeted Elmer Dessens by hitting his second pitch an estimated 481 feet over the back wall of the left-field bullpen for his 25th homer.
Kim (8-10), who snapped a personal four-game losing streak by winning for the first time since Aug. 2, allowed eight hits and two runs before being relieved by Ray King with runners at second and third and two outs in the seventh. King retired J.D. Drew on a grounder to first to end the inning.
The Rockies scored another run off Dessens in the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Matsui, and made it 9-2 against Hong-Chih Kuo in the seventh on back-to-back doubles by Helton and Atkins. Kuo walked the first two batters in the eighth before striking out the next three.
Brad Hawpe’s two-out, RBI single in the fourth gave Colorado a 1-0 lead. The Dodgers scored twice in the bottom half on run-scoring singles by James Loney and Toby Hall.
Hall drove in the Dodgers’ third run, hitting an RBI single off King in the eighth. Vinny Castilla hit a two-run homer and Sullivan added a solo shot off Joe Beimel in the ninth.
Marlon Anderson, acquired by Los Angeles from Washington on Thursday, hit a two-run homer off Jose Mesa with no outs in the ninth to make it 12-5.
Sele, making his first start since Aug. 1, allowed nine hits and six runs in 4 1-3 innings. He entered with a 6-1 record and a 2.89 ERA at Dodger Stadium.
The Dodgers loaded the bases with one out in the fifth, but Kim speared Andre Ethier’s hard grounder up the middle and started an inning-ending double play.
