PHILADELPHIA—The message scrawled on the white board in the clubhouse was clear. It read: Not Done!
The Colorado Rockies aren’t satisfied after getting this far. They’re going home to seal the deal.
Kaz Matsui hit his first career grand slam and drove in five runs, leading the Rockies over the Philadelphia Phillies 10-5 Thursday for a 2-0 lead in their NL playoff series.
With their 16th win in 17 games and eighth straight victory on the road, Colorado is on the verge of going to its first NL championship series in just the second postseason appearance in the franchise’s 15-year history.
“They are very excited about being here, but by no means is that it,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “They want to keep playing.”
A day after taking a pitchers’ duel, Colorado outslugged the Phils and got a big effort from its bullpen.
Matsui connected off Kyle Lohse, who was rushed in to relieve struggling rookie Kyle Kendrick in the fourth inning.
Lohse was the Phillies’ scheduled Game 4 starter. At this rate, the best-of-five series may not get that far.
Rookie Ubaldo Jimenez will try to pitch Colorado to a sweep Saturday night at Coors Field against veteran Jamie Moyer.
“No one is panicking, no one is down,” said Jimmy Rollins, who homered and drove in four runs for the Phillies.
Matsui fell a single short of the cycle, and Troy Tulowitzki and Matt Holliday homered on consecutive pitches in the first inning off Kendrick, who got a quick hook from manager Charlie Manuel.
Booed out of New York after 2 1/2 seasons with the Mets, Matsui is a perfect fit in calmer Colorado.
“I got in a good environment on a good team and I’m so happy about that,” Matsui said through a translator.
The Phillies had a chance to make it interesting in the eighth, loading the bases with two outs. But closer Manny Corpas came in and retired Carlos Ruiz. Corpas worked around a pair of two-out singles in a scoreless ninth for his second save in two days.
Ryan Howard also went deep for Philadelphia, which ended a 14-year playoff drought by capturing the NL East title on the final day of the season.
But it’s been downhill for the Phillies since they followed a wild celebration Sunday with a pep rally at City Hall the next day.
The heavily criticized Manuel gave his critics plenty of ammunition with two questionable moves.
With Philly leading 3-2 in the fourth, Manuel pulled Kendrick after pinch-hitter Seth Smith’s infield single loaded the bases with two outs.
Manuel called on Lohse, who made two relief appearances on side days down the stretch. Lohse got ahead 1-2 on Matsui, before grooving a fastball. Matsui drove it into the right-field seats to give the Rockies a 6-3 lead and silence the largest crowd ever at four-year-old Citizens Bank Park.
“Lohse has been pitching really good out of the bullpen, he has good stuff and I felt he was the right guy,” Manuel said.
A total of 45,991 came out, waved their rally towels and cheered wildly despite the score—somewhat out of character for the notoriously tough Philly boobirds. But they sure gave Jose Mesa an earful when the reliever struggled in the sixth.
Mesa walked his first two batters and allowed a two-run double to Yorvit Torrealba. Clay Condrey entered one out later and gave up an RBI triple to Matsui and RBI single to Holliday that made it 10-3.
“You hope the pitcher can hold the score and you can catch up,” Manuel said.
Matsui, Colorado’s leadoff hitter, had just four homers in 410 at-bats this season. He flied out to center in his last at-bat, finishing 3-for-5.
Rookie Franklin Morales lasted just three innings, allowing three runs and three hits in his ninth career start. The 21-year-old Venezuelan earned his first win in Philly on Sept. 11.
Josh Fogg relieved the hard-throwing lefty, and pitched two scoreless innings to win in his second relief appearance this year. Fogg started Monday when Colorado beat San Diego in 13 innings in the wild-card tiebreaker.
“They had that big inning and there wasn’t any looking back,” Howard said. “We need to have short memories right now.”
On an unseasonably warm fall afternoon in Philly—it was 82 degrees at game time—the balls were flying out early.
Tulowitzki, the Rookie of the Year candidate, and Holliday gave the Rockies a 2-0 lead just six pitches in.
Rollins connected on Morales’ first pitch to slice Colorado’s lead to 2-1. His two-run triple in the third gave the Phillies their first lead of the series, 3-2.
Notes:@ Kendrick, who led NL rookies with 10 wins, allowed five runs and five hits in 3 2-3 innings. … Holliday hit his second homer in two games and his sixth in six games in Philadelphia this season. … Rollins hit the first leadoff homer in Phillies postseason history. … The Phillies haven’t won a postseason game since Curt Schilling shut out Toronto in Game 5 of the 1993 World Series. That series ended with Joe Carter’s homer clinching the championship for the Blue Jays. … Colorado’s bullpen has allowed one earned run in nine innings.
