Rockies Rally to Win

The Colorado Rockies finally broke their losing streak in Florida. All it took was three consecutive home runs and a ninth-inning rally.

Ellis Burks capped the comeback with a two-out, two-run double in the ninth to beat the Florida Marlins, 6-5, Thursday. The Rockies had lost 10 consecutive games at Miami since their last victory, May 14, 1995.

“The club battled,” Colorado Manager Don Baylor said. “They probably didn’t want to hear me bring up numbers anymore about what we don’t do in this ballpark.”

Colorado trailed, 4-0, before Larry Walker, Andres Galarraga and Dante Bichette hit consecutive home runs in the sixth off Alex Fernandez. The homers came in a span of eight pitches and totaled 1,261 feet.

The Rockies trailed, 5-3, when Kirt Manwaring walked with one out in the ninth against Robb Nen (4-2). Pinch-hitter Jeff Reed singled with two out, and Eric Young’s run-scoring single made the score 5-4.

The crowd of 19,145 booed Nen, who has blown four of 17 save chances, including three of his last five. His postgame comments were brief and angry.

“I’ve got nothing to say to these fans,” he said. “They don’t want to hear me talk. What do they want me to do, apologize to them?”

Darren Holmes (2-0) gave up one run in two innings. Steve Reed pitched a scoreless ninth for his sixth save, stranding the tying run at third.

Fernandez gave up six hits and three runs in seven innings. He struck out eight, increasing his career total to 1,002.

Florida’s Gary Sheffield doubled in the eighth and scored from third on Bonilla’s groundout. Sheffield, activated from the disabled list before the game, had two doubles in four at-bats.

San Francisco 4, Atlanta 2--Bill Mueller’s two-run single capped a three-run rally in the seventh inning and the Giants defeated John Smoltz at Atlanta despite having three runners thrown out at home.

The Giants managed only two hits through the first six innings against John Smoltz (6-4) and fell behind, 2-0. But they came up with six hits in the next one-plus innings to knock him from the game and earn their third consecutive victory.

With one out in the seventh, San Francisco put together three singles in a row, the last a run-scoring hit by Stan Javier. After Rick Wilkins walked to load the bases, Mueller singled to right to put the Giants ahead, 3-2.

“A bloop, a flare--it’s a tough way to lose,” Smoltz said. “I hate to get to beat on singles.”

In the eighth, Marvin Benard and Jose Vizcaino led off with singles against Smoltz, who was replaced by Alan Embree. Barry Bonds hit a sacrifice fly to give the Giants an insurance run before Javier’s fly to left resulted in a double play when Vizcaino was thrown out at the plate by Michael Tucker.

The Giants’ seventh ended with a similar double play--Kenny Lofton throwing out Wilkins after he tagged from third--and Mueller was out at the plate in the sixth.

Chicago 2, Cincinnati 1--Rookie Brant Brown’s run-scoring double with one out in the eighth inning lifted the Cubs to a victory over the Reds at Chicago.

It was the 11th come-from-behind victory for the Cubs, while the Reds dropped to 2-10 in one-run games.

Pinch-hitter Dave Clark opened the eighth with a single off Stan Belinda (0-1) and Brian McRae sacrificed pinch-runner Doug Glanville to second.

Brown followed with a double into the gap in right-center, one of three fly balls that dropped for hits in the gap by the Cubs.