Diamondbacks starter Micah Owings couldn’t survive the 4th inning with a 1-0 lead after retiring the lead-off hitter, walking the next two and leaving himself with runners on 2nd and 3rd after getting the first two outs. Owings was chased after three subsequent hits, including a 3 run homer, and an error as the Colorado Rockies were sitting pretty with a 6-1 lead.

Although Arizona got a 2 out, 3 run 8th inning homer from catcher Chris Snyder off of reliever Brian Fuentes, it was far too little, way too late.  The Rockies brought in closer Manny Corpas and it was lights out, Goodnight Irene as the Rockies juggernaut swept Arizona in 4 games, reached 21 wins in 22 games, earned a World Series berth and eight days off with their 6-4 victory on Monday.

AP sports writer Arnie Stapleton recaps the Rockies’ Monday clincher for Yahoo sports;

Owings, the first pitcher since Whitey Ford in 1953 to collect two four-hit games in the same season, lived up to his .333 batting average by legging out a single… and coming around to score on [Conor] Jackson’s two-out single in the third.

Owings had a chance to pad the D-backs’ lead in the fourth but struck out to strand a runner at second. In the bottom half, he dived to field Yorvit Torrealba’s dribbler and throw him out at first. Afterward, the trainer came out to take a look at Owings’ left shin, but the right-hander stayed in — only to soon fall apart.

Series MVP Matt Holliday hit a three-run homer into the pine-filled rock pile in center field that capped a six-run outburst in the fourth inning, and Colorado was on its way.

Born as an expansion team in 1993, the wild-card Rockies are headed to their first World Series.

“They always say baseball is about confidence and we have a lot right now,” outfielder Brad Hawpe said.

“It was fun, this has been a great ride. We’re not done yet,” said Rockies first baseman Todd Helton, the face of the franchise who cradled the last out in his glove. “We’re going to keep it going.”

With their delirious fans waving brooms and towels, the Rockies joined the 1976 Big Red Machine as the only teams to start a postseason with seven straight wins. Colorado has won 10 in row overall and lost only once since Sept. 16.

Ahead 6-1, the Rockies withstood Chris Snyder’s three-run homer in the eighth. Chris Young doubled with one out in the ninth off closer Manny Corpas, but Stephen Drew popped out on a 3-0 pitch.

“If that’s not the tying run, then I obviously don’t let him swing,” Melvin said. “But right there you know you’re going to get a fastball, you know you’re going to get a pitch to drive. He just came off it a hair and popped it up.”

Eric Byrnes followed with a checked-swing grounder that shortstop Troy Tulowitzki charged. His throw beat Byrnes’ headfirst dive, and Helton threw his arms in the air, a decade of disappointment finally forgotten.

“I’m not going to lie, my mind wandered a little bit,” Helton said. “You’ve got to refocus. Sometimes you’d like to be a fan in that situation and sit back and enjoy it. You can’t.”

Corpas earned his second save of the series and fifth in the postseason.

The Rockies are the first team since the 1935 Chicago Cubs to win at least 21 of 22 after Sept. 1, according to Elias Sports Bureau.

“There comes a point in time when a team is no longer hot, they’re simply good,” Arizona’s Tony Clark said. “And I think that’s what we saw with Colorado.”

With the Rockies trailing 1-0 with two outs in the fourth and runners at second and third, Hurdle made a bold move: He pulled his starting pitcher, rookie Franklin Morales, for a pinch-hitter.

Hurdle didn’t have to worry about burning his bullpen because Game 5 wouldn’t have been until Wednesday night. So he sent up rookie Seth Smith, who had only eight career at-bats when he was placed on the playoff roster.

Smith fell behind 0-2 in the count against rookie Micah Owings, then blooped a 1-2 pitch down the left-field line. Like everything else this October for the Rockies, it fell in the perfect place and ended Owings’ streak of 19 scoreless innings.

“In the box score it’ll look like it rattled the wall,” said Smith, whose two-run double put Colorado ahead 2-1.

The Rockies caught another break when Arizona first baseman Conor Jackson couldn’t catch Willy Taveras’ easy grounder. The error set up Kaz Matsui’s run-scoring single — the eighth RBI of the postseason for a player once cast off by the New York Mets.

Holliday sent the sellout crowd of 50,213 into a frenzy when he drove Owings’ slider over the center-field wall to make it 6-1.

Morales allowed one earned run on five hits in four innings. Though he didn’t get the win, the Rockies improved to 8-2 in his 10 major league starts.

*********************************

While the Rockies sewed up their NL pennant, the Cleveland Indians roughed up Red Sox rookie starter Daisuke Matsuzaka in the 2nd inning for a two out 2 run homer by by leftfielder Kenny Lofton, his second homer of the series, and two runs in the 5th inning on 2nd baseman Asdrubal Cabrera’s RBI single and a run-scoring fielder’s choice by dh Travis Hafner. 

That was all of the offense that Cleveland needed as starter Jake Westbrook held the Sox at bay for 6 2/3 innings.   After Boston catcher Jason Varitek homered to close the gap to 4-2, Westbrook struck out centerfielder Coco Crisp before shortstop  Julio Lugo singled up the middle.  Westbrook was then pulled and the Indian bullpen then pulled the curtain on the Red Sox with a perfect 2 1/3 innings to preserve the 4-2 win and take a 2 games to 1 lead in the ALCS.  The Red Sox bullpen held Cleveland off of the basepaths and the scoreboard over the remaining 3 1/3 innings, aside from one base on balls, but Cleveland’s damage had been done.

For the scores, boxscores and recaps on Monday’s games, click here.

In Tuesday’s game 4, Tim Wakefield (17-12) opposes Paul Byrd (15-8) as the Red Sox hope to draw even in the series.

Boston and Cleveland have the day off on Wednesday before returning to action on Thursday in Cleveland as Josh Beckett once again opposes CC Sabathia in game 5.

For the scores, boxscores and recaps on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s games,  click here and  here.

Add to:These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. | del.icio.us | digg | Furl | Reddit | YahooMyWeb |

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 at 11:11 am and is filed under All Time Baseball Highlights, Real-Time Baseball News and Commentary, All Time Team Highlights, Post-Season Highlights, Post-Season Awards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.