George of the Rose and Troy of the Tulo were like Jack of the Beanstalk.
Fee-fi-fo-fun.
The Rockies won.
On a rainy, heavy-air night in LoDo, the Giants were chopped down to size in the continuing Card confrontation.
Jorge De La Rosa and Troy Tulowitzki pitched and powered those rowdy Rox to what eventually would become a rather unproblematic, Crackerjack 8-2 victory.
OK, why trade for Roy Halladay when you have De La Rosa? He has prevailed in eight of his last nine decisions? All right, why worry about Matt Holliday in St. Louis when you have Tulowitzki in Denver? The Man of Troy singled, doubled and homered for a career-high five runs batted in — and the Rockies’ first four when the contest was still being contested.
If you care for fairy tales revisited, the Rockies are your mid-market team that could — rain or shine. This is not the same team that looked like Shrek early in the season, and Jim Tracy keeps on smiling as if he ate canary scampi.
“Troy did a tremendous amount of damage,” the manager said. “That was as good a job as I’ve seen all season from George,” or Jorge.
Another large crowd — produce a contender, and they will come to Coors Field of dreams — came with their umbrellas and their chants old and new for Tulowitzki — Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, “Tu-Lo” — and De La Rosa — “Hip, hip, Hor-hey.”
The Rockies came with their A-plus game. The Giants didn’t come with much. They were Cain on Friday night, Unable on Saturday night.
Loser of today’s game has to leave town. Actually, both will leave town, not to face again until the end of August (four in Denver, three in San Francisco).
Before the ninth inning, the evening belonged to Tulowitzki’s three-quarters cycle and De La Rosa’s high-performance, low-maintenance throwfest.
Then we saw the future — Jhoulys Chacin, the 21-year-old right-handed pitcher from Venezuela. The Maracaibo Express struck out two. Welcome to the big leagues, kid.
New-acquisition reliever Rafael Betancourt had his second successive effort. Welcome to Colorado, Rafael. Guess where he’s from? Yes, Venezuela.
De La Rosa is from Mexico. Tulowitzki is from California.
The Rockies are from nirvana.
De La Rosa began the season 0-6, and there were those among us who believed he shouldn’t be the club’s fifth starter, or even the 35th starter. He turned every molehill into Mount Evans.
But De La Rosa has won six in a row and become one of the Five Aces. In his two victories of the week he pitched 14 1/3 innings, permitted only three runs, struck out 13 and walked only one opponent. No longer De La Thorn.
De La Rosa had Giants batters bewitched, bewildered and be heading back to the bench. (He was 7-3 after the all-star break last season.) Tracy applauded De La Rosa’s tempo and temperament.
“I was very comfortable on the mound. Relaxed,” De La Rosa said. He looked like he was pitching from a sofa.
By Jorge, he’s got it.
Tulowitzki was no slouch, either.
Once the shortstop was persuaded this season to stand up at the plate and stand up and be counted, he has returned to 2007 form — and now leads the Rockies in home runs with 18.
In his first at-bat, Tulowitzki sent a soarer to right-center, and everyone screamed, then sighed. Long out on a Seattle kind of night when baseballs traveled like medicine balls and seemed to belong in the anti-humidor, and dueling no-hitters were a real prospect.
But in his next at-bat, with two runners on, Tulowitzki sent another soarer to right-center. Everybody in the park hesitated. Long home run in the rain. A three-run lead would be enough with De La Rosa on the mound.
However, in his next at-bat, with two runners on, Tulowitzki doubled to left field. He added a single just for fee-fi-fo-fun.
It was such a glorious night at the Roxy, Tracy was praising rookie Dexter Fowler for being thrown out at second base. Fowler tagged up at first on a deep drive to right, but Nate Schierholtz unleashed a world-class fling.
Tracy could have commended everyone on the Rockies’ side — from Garrett Atkins, who has rediscovered his hitting stride, to Seth Smith (sacrifice fly as a pinch-hitter) to the grounds crew for not letting the field become Walden Pond.
One more victory, and the Rox head into that Mets-Reds- Phillies trip with a slight cushion in the on-going wild card 65-game dash. If they pitch and hit and play defense and do all the big and little things as they did on Saturday night, the Rox of the Mountains & Plains, not the Giants of the Bay, will be beanstalkers like Jack and his mom, who ended up rich.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
