Hopefully, the sun-scorched crowd roasting at Coors Field this afternoon slathered on the sunscreen. For the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates, however, there was no way to ward off the sizzling Rockies.
Behind the pitching of Aaron Cook and a 15-hit attack featuring 11 extra-base hits, the Rockies clubbed the Pirates 11-3 to finish off a four-game sweep.
Suddenly, the Rockies are playing their best baseball of the season — at least at home where they are 9-1 in their last 10.
The Rockies are 14 games under .500 (43-57), but they still have a pulse in the mild, mild National League West. And with the second-place Dodgers coming into town Monday to begin a three-game series, the third-place Rockies could begin to make things interesting.
Funny thing is, before the all-star intermission, the Rockies looked spent and broken, losing four straight and scoring just one run in three losses to the Mets in New York.
The Pirates roughed Cook up in the first inning, scoring three runs on four hits. Cook had trouble finding the strike zone and his trusty sinker was floating over the plate.
After that, however, Cook looked every bit like the pitcher who threw three sterling innings in the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium last week. From the second through the seventh, he faced the minimum batters (18), allowing just one base-runner in the fifth, who was promptly erased on a double play.
In earning his 12th victory of the season, Cook went seven innings, yielding five hits and walking one. He got 14 outs via groundballs.
Pirates’ left-handed starter Zach Duke made the Rockies look clueless through the first three innings, setting down the first nine batters he faced. But once the Rockies figured him out, it was no contest.
In the fourth, run-scoring doubles by Matt Holliday and Chris Iannetta cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-2. A four-run fifth — featuring a lead-off triple by Clint Barmes, an RBI double by Ian Stewart, a two-run homer by Jeff Baker and a solo shot by Holliday — put Colorado ahead 6-3.
Holliday finished a triple short of the cycle and boosted his average to .332. Baker went 3 for 4 and drove in two, and Stewart, starting at third base for the second straight game, went 2 for 4 and drove in three.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
