Jeff Francis walked off the mound with his head held high and cheers washing over him.
Todd Helton clapped his hands in a rare display of emotion.
The offense delivered in the clutch.
All signs that for one perfect May afternoon, at least, the struggling Rockies resembled the team that won the National League pennant last fall.
With Francis picking up his first victory of the season, the Rockies beat up the Twins 6-2 today at Coors Field. Helton went 2-for-4, driving in three runs. He entered the game with just 12 RBIs, and none in his last seven games.
Facing a Twins team that committed three sloppy errors, the Rockies won back-to-back games for the first time since May 9.
Francis, almost always a better pitcher under the sun than under the lights, hung tough for 6 2/3 innings. He gave up six hits – all of them for extra bases – but surrendered just two runs. Those came in the sixth when fellow Canadian Justin Morneau drove Francis’ 3-2 fastball over the right-center field wall for a two-run homer and a 2-1 Twins’ lead. It was Morneau’s eighth homer of the season.
Toss out the homer, and Francis was nothing if not resilient. Brendan Harris led off the game with a double, but was stranded at second. Michael Cuddrey opened the second with a triple but was stranded 90 feet from home plate. Delmon Young rattled a one-out triple into the right-field corner in the third but never scored.
It’s fitting that Francis (1-4, 5.87 ERA) should notch his first win of the season in a day game. Last year, when he won a career-high 17 games, Francis was 8-0 with a 2.48 ERA in nine daylight starts. He was 9-9 with a 4.92 ERA in night games.
Mired in a May funk that lowered his average to .269, the 34-year-old Helton played like a 24-year-old kid. He made two acrobatic plays at first base, robbing Morneau of a hit in the third inning and doing the same to Mike Redmond in the fourth.
In the sixth, Helton smoked a two-out solo homer to right field, tying the game 2-all. It was just Helton’s fourth homer of the season and his first in 53 at-bats. The Rockies took a 3-2 lead when Garrett Atkins followed up Helton’s act with a double and scored on Jeff Baker’s single up the middle.
Helton added to his day with a bases-loaded two-run single in the Rockies’ three-run seventh.
Clint Barmes, who, in the words of manager Clint Hurdle, is playing “fantastic” baseball, put the Rockies in front 1-0 in the third with a solo homer to left. Barmes went 2-for-4, extending his hitting streak to 11 games. During the streak, Barmes has hit .500 (20-for-40), boosting his season average to .357.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
