Rockies manager Jim Tracy was talking Saturday about life without Troy Tulowitzki.
“Everybody in this clubhouse realizes that we all, collectively, have to dig deeper,” Tracy said. “If we’re not capable of getting five or six (runs) a day and they have to win 4-2 or 3-2 or 2-1 or 2-0, then that’s what we do. It’s that simple.”
So who says they’re not capable of scoring five or six runs?
The Rockies scored eight Saturday night, seven coming in the seventh and eighth innings. And in the end, they needed every one.
The Rockies fell behind 4-1 in the seventh before their two-inning offensive breakout gave them a wild 8-7 win over the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field.
Jason Giambi’s pinch-hit sacrifice fly scored Brad Hawpe with the go-ahead run in the eighth. By the time the inning ended, the Rockies had scored three more times to make it 8-4. Good thing, because Corey Hart hit a three-run homer in the ninth for the Brewers.
The Rockies’ three-run seventh came in part because of a key strategic move by Tracy. Miguel Olivo launched the Rockies’ game-tying rally with a solo homer off Carlos Villanueva. Moments later, Seth Smith came up with Clint Barmes at first. Tracy had double-switched when he called for Matt Belisle in the top of the seventh, with Belisle replacing Melvin Mora in the No. 5 slot in the order and Smith replacing Mora and moving into the pitcher’s slot at No. 9.
Smith, hitting fourth in the bottom of the inning, hit a two-run homer to tie it, setting up the Rockies’ four-run outburst in the eighth.
Hawpe doubled to open the inning and came around to score on Giambi’s sacrifice fly, his first RBI of the season as a pinch hitter.
By the time the inning ended, the Rockies had scored three more times.
It remains to be seen how many times the Rockies will score eight runs in the next few weeks, what with Tulowitzki gone with a broken bone in his left wrist. They were 12th in the National League in hitting with him in the lineup, so it’s anyone’s guess what they’ll do without him.
They scored a run in the first inning off Brewers starter Yovani Gallardo, but spent the next five innings flailing away with no runs to show for it. Gallardo left after six innings, during which he struck out nine.
Rockies starter Jeff Francis pitched well early, shutting the Brewers out through four innings. He had two outs in the fifth when Alcides Escobar singled to tie it before a fluke play put the Brewers ahead in the sixth.
Rickie Weeks opened the Milwaukee sixth with a single to center, bringing Hart to the plate. Hart hit a routine ground ball to Ian Stewart’s left, but Todd Helton lost Stewart’s throw in the sun. The ball bounded down the right-field line, enabling Weeks to score and Hart to take third.
Francis did an amazing job after Helton’s error, striking out Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun before getting Casey McGehee to ground out to end the inning. But he encountered more tough luck in the seventh, allowing a broken-bat double to left by Escobar to give the Brewers a 3-1 lead.
Milwaukee added another run moments later when Weeks hit a blooper to right that Hawpe dived for and almost caught, only to have the ball squirt out of his glove. The Brewers’ 4-1 didn’t last long, though, as Olivo and Smith helped the Rockies tie the game in the bottom of the inning.
