So, Jamie Moyer was asked, what’s up with the cold weather that followed the Philadelphia Phillies to Colorado?
“Hey,” said Moyer, “it’s perfect weather for Roy’s homecoming.”
That would be Arvada’s own Roy Halladay, whose long-awaited Coors Field debut became longer awaited when was his scheduled start was rained out Tuesday night.
Wednesday’s weather wasn’t much better, with temperatures hovering in the low-40s, but the Phillies and Rockies were able to play the first game of a scheduled doubleheader. Halladay and his counterpart, Rockies starter Aaron Cook, were long gone by the time the game ended.
Miguel Olivo homered off Chad Durbin with no outs in the 10th inning to give the Rockies a 4-3 win. Olivo went 5-for-5 from the plate on the day. The second game of the doubleheader was postponed. A makeup date was not announced.
“I think that’s the game where everybody is going to wake up,” Olivo said. “It’s good for the team. We needed that.”
Olivo is falling in love with Coors Field. The game-winning homer was his sixth of the season, with four coming in Denver. He’s hitting .419 (18-for-43) at Coors compared to .122 (5-for-41) on the road.
Olivo was mired in a 2-for-28 stretch with no home runs in May. He hadn’t driven in a run until Wednesday. It was his first walk-off hit of any kind in his career.
The hit couldn’t have come at a more needed time. The rox have several players on the disabled list and they’d lost three out of four, dropping two games below .500.
Add the cold and flu bugs that have made the rounds through the clubhouse, and the Rockies needed the jolt Olivo provided.
“You have games that maybe, as you look back on the season, may end up being pivotal,” said Rockies manager Jim Tracy, who was ejected in the ninth inning for the first time this season, after arguing a call at first base. He added that Maybe today’s first game is one of those pivotal games “because that was a terrific team effort.”
Said Olivo: “You’re looking for one pitch. I saw a hanging breaking ball and I made a good swing. For me, it’s one of my best games in the big leagues.
Halladay, who had thrown three complete games in his first seven starts, wasn’t particularly sharp, matching his season high with 10 hits allowed in 6 1/3 innings, his shortest outing of the year. The last of those 10 hits was a two-run, game-tying triple by Brad Hawpe that caromed off the right-field wall.
The game marked the fourth time in seven starts in which Cook was handed a lead and lost it. The Rockies were ahead 1-0 before the Phillies tied it in the fourth inning and took the lead with two runs in the fifth.
Cook, who came into the game 1-0, 2.40 at Coors Field and 0-3, 8.84 on the road, got Shane Victorino to open the fifth, but allowed a one-out double to left to Placido Polanco. Chase Utley followed with a single to give the Phillies the lead and eventually scored on Raul Ibañez’s sacrifice fly.
Halladay usually is money in the bank with a two-run lead in the seventh, but not on this day. Carlos Gonzalez opened the Rockies’ seventh with his third hit of the day and scored ahead of Eric Young, Jr. on Hawpe’s booming triple to right.
Halladay didn’t exactly get a lot of help from his friends as Ryan Howard fielded Young’s ground ball and threw the ball in the dirt while trying to force Gonzalez at second, setting the stage for Hawpe’s game-tying drive.
Tracy was ejected, his first of the season, by first base umpire Cory Blaser after a close play at first base on Eric Young Jr.’s bouncer into the hole at shortstop. The game went into extra innings.
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com
