The Colorado Rockies capitalized on a shaky 2nd inning by losing pitcher, ace lefthander Cole Hamels by scoring 3 runs and leftfielder Matt Holliday added an insurance run with an 8th inning homer off of reliever Tom Gordon.  Lefthander Jeff Francis held the Phillies to 2 runs on back-to-back homers by centerfielder Aaron Rowand and leftfielder Pat Burrell in the 5th inning and a total of 4 hits over 6 innings and Rockies bullpen shut down the Phils the rest of the way for a 4-2 win to take a 1-0 lead in games in their division series.

In Wednesday’s other NL division playoff game, Arizona bested the  Chicago Cubs by a 3-1 score in a duel of 18 game winners Carlos Zambrano and Brandon Webb.

In the opening AL division playoff game, the Boston Red Sox shut out the  Los Angeles Angels by a 4-0 score on a 4 hit complete game by Josh Beckett (20-7) as Angels’ John Lackey (19-9) gave up 4 runs on 9 hits in 6 innings pitched and Boston got homers by 1st baseman Kevin Youkilis and DH David “Big Papi” Ortiz.

Both the Diamondbacks and the Red Sox to 1-0 leads in their respective series.  The Yankees and the Cleveland Indians open their division series on Thursday with a duel of 19 game winners; Chien-Ming Wang for the Yanks vs Indians’ lefthander C.C. Sabathia. 

The Phillies’ league-leading offense took a snooze in the opener as
2nd baseman Chase Utley and 1st baseman Ryan Howard accounted for 7 of the 10 Phillies strikeouts against Rockies’ pitching.  It marked only the 2nd time in Utley’s career that he struck out 4 times in a game.

AP sports reporter Rob Maaddi recaps the game for Yahoo sports;

Francis pitched six effective innings and stayed out of big trouble, mostly by shutting down the Phillies’ top hitters.

Roughed up by the Phillies in two starts this season, Francis seemed like he was in for another tough day after falling behind leadoff hitter [Jimmy] Rollins 3-0. But the 26-year-old lefty regrouped and ended up striking out the first four batters.

“Some of the hitters may have been uptight, but Francis was way better than the other times I’ve seen him,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said.

Francis’ lone problems came in the fifth when Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell hit consecutive homers.

The left-hander gave up four hits and struck out eight. Once the 17-game winner departed, three relievers pitched three hitless innings, with Manny Corpas closing for a save.

Hamels, the 23-year-old All-Star lefty, was outstanding except for one inning. Making his first career start against the Rockies, he allowed three runs and three hits in 6 2-3 innings.

Todd Helton lined a triple to start the second and Garrett Atkins doubled. Yorvit Torrealba’s one-out single drove in Atkins for a 2-0 lead.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Hamels got ahead of  [Troy] Tulowitzki 0-2 before walking him to force in another run. But he struck out Holliday swinging on a changeup to leave the bases full. Holliday nearly hit a slam, just hooking a long foul down the left-field line.

Hamels… kept his cool… and retired the next 13 batters.

“You want to succeed in the spotlight,” Hamels said. “Nothing can prepare you for what this situation is like.”

Holliday, the MVP candidate, gave the Rockies an insurance run when he hit Tom Gordon’s pitch into the seats for a 4-2 lead in the eighth.

MLB.com’s Ken Mandel reports these reactions by the Phillies;

“I don’t know why anybody is panicking,” Howard said. “I’m not panicking.”

“We’ve got another chance tomorrow,” Rollins added. “No one was surprised, no one felt overpowered. We just didn’t come up with the big hits, so we’re looking forward to tomorrow.”

They might as well. With 48 come-from-behind wins, and after storming back from 7 1/2 games behind to capture the NL East, the Phillies are used to recovering quickly.

“[We’ve] been there all year long,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “We know how important tomorrow is.”

For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Wednesday’s playoff games, click here.

On Thursday, the Rockies throw another lefthander at the Phillies as rookie Franklin Morales (3-2) opposes Phillies rookie Kyle Kendrick (10-4). The Phillies look to Kendrick and to an awakened offense to even the series.

For the scores, boxscores and recaps on all of Thursday’s playoff games,  click here.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 2:49 pm and is filed under All Time Baseball Highlights
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