Holliday in and so are Rockies with epic win

DENVER -- Matt Holliday was on his back, staring into an October sky the likes of which he had never seen.

For the first time in 12 seasons, the Colorado Rockies were headed to the playoffs.

While a bloody and dazed Holliday recovered from a home-plate collision that resulted in the deciding run of the Rockies’ 9-8 victory over the San Diego Padres on Monday night, his teammates were down the first-base line leaping into each other’s arms, celebrating the 13-inning triumph in a one-game playoff for the National League wild card.

The Rockies moved on to a divisional series that starts Wednesday in Philadelphia, thanks to a comeback that was as improbable as the furious season-ending surge in which they won 14 of their last 15 games.

Put at a two-run deficit by a home run from San Diego’s Scott Hairston in the 13th, the Rockies started the bottom of inning with three consecutive extra-base hits off Padres closer Trevor Hoffman. Among them was a triple off the top of the right-field wall by Holliday that scored Troy Tulowitzki and tied the score, 8-8.

Two batters later, Jamey Carroll flied out to right field and Holliday was on his way home.

“I just reacted,” Holliday said. “I didn’t think about it.”

Trying to outrun a throw by Brian Giles, Holliday dived into home plate, which Padres catcher Michael Barrett was trying to block with his leg. The man whose plate appearances elicited chants of “M-V-P!” from the full house of 48,404 fans admitted to not knowing if he ever touched the plate.

“To be honest, I don’t remember it,” said Holliday, who was cut on his chin and left hand. “I was dazed.”

The moment that Holliday couldn’t recall was the moment the Rockies had long waited for, the moment they sacrificed entire seasons to reach.

But it was possible only because the Padres lost the last two games on their schedule to make the playoff necessary.

The Padres didn’t hold back Monday, throwing presumptive Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy, only for him to give up six runs and 10 hits in 6 1/3 innings. He allowed two home runs, to Yorvit Torrealba and Todd Helton.

The Padres trailed only 6-5 at the time of Peavy’s exit because of a five-run fifth that included a grand slam by Adrian Gonzalez. The Padres tied the score in the eighth on a double by Giles that Holliday appeared to misjudge in left. The hit drove in Geoff Blum.

A controversial call in the seventh deprived the Rockies of the separation that could have spared them extra innings, as a line drive by Garrett Atkins either hit the top of the left-field fence or barely cleared it. Wherever it hit, it flew back toward center field and Atkins, after a meeting among the umpires, had to settle for a double. Atkins said he thought the ball had gone out.

The Rockies improved their club-record win total to 90 games, punctuating their first winning season in seven years. Largely responsible for the last couple of those losing seasons was a commitment to youth, similar to what the Dodgers are doing now.

Of the Rockies’ eight starting position players Monday, six were drafted by the organization: Todd Helton (1995), Holliday (1998), Garrett Atkins (2000), Brad Hawpe (2000), Ryan Spilborghs (2002) and Tulowitzki (2005). Developing them to be everyday big leaguers proved to be a trying process.

“We took a look at a couple of other models of the teams that have had success in markets that we felt were similar, Minnesota and Oakland and, how they went about it,” Manager Clint Hurdle said. “We held fast and we stayed the course through some challenging times. This is not an overnight success.”

Losing when undertaking such a transition is unavoidable, Hurdle said, “unless you get extremely lucky. . . . Everybody wants it now. We understand that. But there’s a pace that’s going to play itself out and that’s the pace of the players’ development. We need to make sure that we give them the freedom to play and we’re willing to have that patience to play itself out.”

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com