For the first time in more than month, they had the brooms out in the Coors Field stands Thursday. And for the first time all season, they produced the desired result.
The Rockies’ 8-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks gave them their first sweep of the season, home or road, and extended their winning streak to a season-high five games.
And you know what happens when the Rockies get on a winning streak.
They won 11 straight and 17 out of 18 last season, and 11 in a row and 21 out of 22, counting playoff games, in their fabled Rocktober run of 2007.
It’s not like their manager, Jim Tracy, didn’t see it coming. The Rockies finished 44-17 at home under Tracy last season, and he could sense on their last road trip that they were ready to start rolling in LoDo.
“Coors Field is our home,” said Tracy. “We’re not getting beat in there. We’re not losing series in there. We don’t go in there to get beat. That’s our building, with our fans.”
The Rockies gave them plenty to get excited about on Thursday, including their first back-to-back-to-back home runs since April 27, 2004.
Jeromy Burnitz, Charles Johnson and Matt Holliday did the honors that day vs. Florida. This time it was Seth Smith, Carlos Gonzalez and Ryan Spilborghs, who took loser Dan Haren deep in the seventh inning.
The Rockies jumped ahead 3-0 in the first inning largely on the strength of, you guessed it, a two-run homer by Troy Tulowitzki. Nothing out of the ordinary there. Tulowitzki, who had one homer through the Rockies’ first 40 games, has hit five in the last seven.
Haren, a Cy Young candidate in recent years, won’t be getting any votes this year. He served up four home runs for the second straight start as his ERA skyrocketed to 5.35 from 4.79.
Jason Hammel, meanwhile, won his second game of the season, the third by a Rockies starter in as many games. Rockies starters are 20-13, putting them on pace for 69 wins, which would tie the franchise record set in 2009.
The Rockies before sweeping three from the D-Backs hadn’t had a winning streak or losing streak of longer than three games, and hadn’t been more than two games above or below the .500 mark. They’ve won nine out of 13 and stand 14-7 at Coors Field.
Jim Armstrong: 303-954-1269 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
