With their own postseason hopes on the ropes, the Rockies delivered a solid punch to the Dodgers’ dreams Tuesday afternoon at Coors Field.
Behind a superb performance by starter Jeff Francis and timely hits by Cory Sullivan, the Rockies beat the Dodgers 3-1 in the first game of a doubleheader.
Colorado moved to within 4-1/2 games of San Diego in the wild-card standings. The Dodgers fell 3-1/2 games behind the Padres.
“It was a great time to pitch a great game,” manager Clint Hurdle said.
Rebounding from a disastrous last start, Francis twisted hitters into pretzels, striking out a career-high 10 against a Dodgers team that entered the game with the fewest strikeouts in the National League. It was the most strikeouts by a Rockies pitcher in 661 games, dating back to Aug. 28, 2003, when Jason Jennings whiffed 10 Giants.
“To be honest, it didn’t seem like that many strikeouts,” catcher Yorvit Torrealba said. “But he had everything working today. You know when he’s out there he’s going to compete.”
Francis allowed one run on six hits in 6-2/3 innings to notch his 16th victory, the most ever by a Rockies left-hander, surpassing Shawn Estes’ 15 in 2004. Francis’ 16 wins are the most by a major-league lefty this season.
“Shawn was the perfect guy for me to have around when I first got up here,” Francis said. “He’s very experienced and knew how to win. And our stuff wasn’t that different. I learned a lot from him while he was here.”
With at least two scheduled starts remaining, Francis has a chance to set a franchise record for victories in a season. The record of 17 is held by Kevin Ritz (1996) and Pedro Astacio (1999).
Francis delivered the kind of performance the Rockies had hoped for last week in Philadelphia when he pitched one of the worst games of his career, giving up eight runs on eight hits with four walks in 3-1/3 innings.
“It means a lot because obviously the last start wasn’t what I was looking for,” Francis said. “I can’t remember a lot of times this year where I was able to win a close game. The guys have scored so many runs for me this year. It’s nice to pitch and win a game like that.”
Sullivan, who’s become a mainstay in center field since a quadriceps injury benched Willy Taveras early this month, doubled twice and scored Colorado’s first two runs. He led off the fourth with a double and scooted home on Matt Holliday’s single. Sullivan, hitting .322, led off the sixth with another double, scoring on Todd Helton’s single to put the Rockies in front 2-0.
Rookie Joe Koshansky provided some cushion in the seventh, hitting a pinch-hit double off the right-field wall to score Brad Hawpe. It was the first hit of Koshansky’s big-league career.
Manny Corpas converted his 15th save in 15 tries since becoming the Rockies’ closer. He’s retired 21 consecutive batters faced over his past seven outings. He’s one shy of the franchise record of 22 consecutive batters retired by a reliever. That was done by Tim Harikkala in 2004.
Staff writer Troy E. Renck contributed to this report.
Staff writer Patrick Saunders can be reached at 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com.
