HOUSTON — Traditionally, Minute Maid Park squeezes the life out of the Rockies. Just ask reliever Brian Fuentes.
One of the worst moments of Fuentes’ career came last June 28 when Carlos Lee hit a walk-off grand slam off him in the 11th inning, giving the Houston Astros a stunning victory.
But the Rockies have grown a lot since then.
Saturday night, behind a superb four-hit, seven-inning performance from starter Aaron Cook, and cool scoreless innings in relief by Fuentes and closer Manuel Corpas, the Rockies beat the Astros 3-2 for their fourth straight win.
“This place hasn’t been good to us,” Cook said. “It seems like I can’t remember winning more than five or six games here. So this feels pretty good.”
Manager Clint Hurdle said Minute Maid Park had been a “house of horrors” for the Rockies, and Fuentes in particular, but Fuentes said that wasn’t on his mind when he took the mound in the eighth inning.
“You can’t think about things like that,” Fuentes said. “You just have to go out and pitch. That’s what I tried to do tonight.”
Colorado notched its fifth victory in its last six games, all coming on the road. Coupled with Friday night’s victory, it marked the first time the Rockies have won more than one game in the same season at Minute Maid Park.
Cook’s performance was a matter of trust, in himself and his super sinker.
“I pretty much concentrated on my sinker and I tried to keep them off-balance,” said Cook, who improved to 2-1, shrank his ERA to 3.12 and hit an RBI single in the first inning.
Houston batters repeatedly pounded Cook’s sinker into the dirt. By the end of his seven innings of work, Cook had induced 11 groundball outs. His one big mistake was serving up a solo homer to J.R. Towles to lead off the third.
“For Aaron to give up only four hits in seven innings in this ballpark, it’s a dominating effort,” Hurdle said.
Brad Hawpe broke a 2-2 tie with an RBI single in the fifth, driving in Matt Holliday. That proved to be the game-winning hit, and it came in front of more than 100 of Hawpe’s friends and family members who made the 4 1/2-hour drive from Hawpe’s native Fort Worth, Texas.
“That was nice to barrel some balls and be part of a winning effort in front of my family,” Hawpe said. “Especially here. I can’t remember ever winning games here.”
High drama arrived in the seventh inning when Houston third baseman Geoff Blum led off with a deep drive to center field. Ryan Spilborghs, his back to home plate, made a diving stab at the ball, crash landing on his belly. He emerged with the ball in his right hand, and second-base umpire Mark Wegner ruled it a catch. Although fans howled in protest and Houston manager Cecil Cooper was tossed for arguing, the call stood.
“We had a consultation and we go with majority rules on the consult,” home-plate umpire and crew chief Rick Reed said. “Cecil didn’t want to listen to it and was pretty upset. If replay can’t show conclusively what happened on the play, I don’t believe he should be that upset about it. Yeah, the tying run would be possibly at second base, but we made every effort to be where we were supposed to be.”
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
TODAY: Rockies at Astros, noon, KTVD-20
This afternoon’s game features the Rockies’ homegrown talent of the presentUbaldo Jimenez (1-2, 4.60 ERA) — vs. homegrown talent of the past — the Astros’ Shawn Chacon (0-0, 2.25). Chacon, from Greeley, who pitched for the Rockies from 2001-05, makes his first start against his old team. The former all-star is coming off pitching eight scoreless innings in Philadelphia. Unfortunately for Chacon, the Astros lost 4-3 when closer Jose Valverde blew the game in the ninth. Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
