The postgame fireworks couldn’t compare to the Rockies’ on-field pyrotechnics when Yorvit Torrealba lifted a game-winning sacrifice fly in the ninth inning to beat the Cardinals 2-1 Friday night.
Torrealba’s moment set up like this: Todd Helton milked a walk off of reliever Trevor Miller to lead off the inning. Helton was replaced by pinch-runner Mike McCoy. Miller was replaced by Kyle McClellan. He faced Troy Tulowitzki who reached on a fielder’s choice.
Pinch-hitter Jason Giambi — nicknamed “The Gladiator” by manager Jim Tracy — ripped a single to left-center, moving Tulowitzki to third.
Up stepped Torrealba, the Rockies’ late-season messiah, who lifted McClellan’s pitch into the dark September sky.
The win was gigantic because the Braves kept the pressure on the Rockies, beating Washington 4-1 for their ninth win in 11 games. But the Braves still sit 31/2 games behind Colorado in the wild-card race.
With Rockies starter Aaron Cook matching great pitches with Cy Young candidate Chris Carpenter, it was the kind of evening in which fans exhaled after every pitch.
The tension climbed to white-
knuckle levels in the eighth. With runners at the corners and one out, Holliday strode to the plate, serenaded by a mixture of boos and cheers. Rafael Betancourt got him to ground into an inning-ending double play hit to Clint Barmes at second. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki’s relay throw to the first looked like a Nolan Ryan fastball.
Cook was brilliant. Pitching for the first time since Aug. 21, his sinker had a cannonball effect on Cardinals bats. Cook induced 12 groundball outs in his five innings, allowing no runs and just four hits. He threw 76 pitches, 50 of them strikes.
The Rockies hoped to get a solid five innings out of Cook and he delivered, almost certainly locking up a place for himself in the postseason rotation should the Rockies make the playoffs.
Jose Contreras, back from a strained quadriceps, was good too. But not perfect. Ryan Ludwick smashed Contreras’ 1-0 hanging slider deep into the left-field bleachers to lead off the sixth, tying the game 1-1.
The Rockies pieced together a run off Carpenter in the first.
Carlos Gonzalez led off with a double down the left-field line, advanced to third on Dexter Fowler’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Todd Helton’s sacrifice fly to center.
Ian Stewart’s glove save on Holliday’s sizzler down the third-base line prevented a Cardinals run in the third. With Brendan Ryan on third and Albert Pujols on first, Holliday lashed the ball toward the corner, but Stewart smothered it and, throwing from his knees, threw out Holliday by three steps.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
