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Dodgers Collapse in Ninth : Baseball: Rockies rally for four runs against Worrell and Gott for a 7-6 victory.

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From Associated Press

Charlie Hayes’ RBI single capped a four-run ninth inning rally that carried the Colorado Rockies to a 7-6 victory Monday over the Dodgers.

The win snapped Colorado’s five-game losing streak and averted a sweep of the three-game series. The Dodgers had won four straight and seven of their previous nine games.

The Rockies, who had earlier squandered a 3-1 lead when the Dodgers scored five runs in the eighth, tied the score with no outs in the ninth.

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John VanderWal opened the ninth with a single off Todd Worrell (6-5) and moved to second when Nelson Liriano walked. Howard Johnson followed with an RBI single and pinch-hitter Danny Sheaffer hit a two-run double to right-center, chasing Worrell and bringing on Jim Gott.

Walt Weiss sacrificed pinch-runner Ellis Burks to third and, after an intentional walk to Dante Bichette, Hayes singled to left.

Bruce Ruffin (4-5) picked up the win with 1 2/3 innings of relief.

The four-run uprising ended a Rockies string of 56 innings in which they had not scored more than one run.

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Mike Piazza’s two-run double highlighted a five-run eighth inning that gave the Dodgers a 6-3 lead.

Marvin Freeman had blanked the Dodgers through six innings and left after seven with a 3-1 lead, but the Rockies bullpen couldn’t hold the advantage.

Mike Munoz walked the first two batters he faced, then surrendered an RBI double to Delino DeShields. Piazza greeted Steve Reed with a double down the right field line for a 4-3 lead. Tim Wallach, who singled in another run. After a fielding error on third baseman Hayes, Raul Mondesi’s groundout produced the final run of the inning.

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Colorado’s Eric Young hit a solo homer, his seventh, off Pedro Astacio in the third inning.

In the fifth, Liriano doubled down the right-field line and scored when the light-hitting Freeman, batting only .086, doubled into the gap in right-center.

The Rockies made it 3-0 in the sixth when Weiss and Bichette singled. Weiss went to third on a fly ball and scored on Mike Kingery’s sacrifice fly.

Freeman, cruising along with a four-hit shutout, yielded a leadoff homer to Wallach, his 22nd, in the seventh.

Freeman went seven innings, allowing six hits, with one walk and five strikeouts. Astacio, who also went seven innings, gave up nine hits and three runs, with one walk and six strikeouts.

The Rockies loaded the bases in the seventh, but first baseman Eric Karros made a diving stop of Weiss’ grounder and flipped to Astacio for the third out.

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