Denver, CO – Corey Dickerson went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored to back another strong start at home from Jorge De La Rosa, with the pair leading the Colorado Rockies to a 4-2 victory over the San Diego Padres to take the rubber match of a three-game series.
Dickerson finished with a pair of doubles and a triple to help the Rockies to their fifth win in six outings, while Troy Tulowitzki went 2-for-3 and also knocked in two runs in the triumph.
De La Rosa (12-6) did his part as well, limiting the Padres to two runs while scattering eight hits and fanning six over seven innings to run his season record to 8-1 at Coors Field.
Andrew Cashner (8-7) also pitched well in a losing cause for San Diego, lasting seven innings and yielding six hits with seven strikeouts despite permitting three runs.
Chris Denorfia and Jesus Guzman both had two hits and an RBI to pace the Padres offensively.
Dickerson snapped a 1-1 deadlock in the bottom of the third inning with his second triple of the series, a shot into the gap in left center that brought home Dexter Fowler from first. Tulowitzki followed with a hard single up the middle to give the Rockies a two-run edge.
Cashner was dominant afterward, retiring the next 14 Colorado hitters before being removed to begin the bottom of the eighth, and the Padres closed the gap by reaching De La Rosa for a run in the fourth.
Jedd Gyorko doubled off the scoreboard in right field with one out and crossed the plate on a Guzman single to pull San Diego within 3-2.
The Padres had an opportunity to tie it in the sixth, as consecutive singles by Gyorko and Guzman put runners at the corners with none out. Logan Forsythe then hit a slow grounder to third with Gyorko running on contact, resulting in a rundown where he was tagged out and Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba alertly caught Guzman attempting to take third to complete a costly double play.
"Probably the biggest play in the game," said Rockies manager Walt Weiss. "It looked like we were running into trouble that inning and Yorvie makes a heads- up play to get us out of it."
San Diego failed to threaten the rest of the way, with De La Rosa and relievers Matt Belisle and Rex Brothers setting down 9-of-10 batters over the final three frames. Brothers tossed a 1-2-3 ninth to nail down his 11th save of the year.
Cashner ran into some bad luck in the opening inning as Colorado grabbed a quick 1-0 advantage. Dickerson sent a two-out flare into left field that he hustled into a double, with Tulowitzki -- who came into the contest in an 0- for-14 skid -- lofting a deep drive to left in which the ball popped out of Forsythe's glove as he crashed into the wall for a double.
"I thought I made some really good pitches today," said Cashner. "I just thought that some balls fell in. A couple of different plays and it's a different ball game."
De La Rosa began his day with two perfect innings before surrendering a leadoff single to Ronny Cedeno in the third. After Cashner sacrificed him to second for the second out, Denorfia came through with a single through the right side that knotted the score at 1-1.
Game Notes
Colorado's Michael Cuddyer returned to the lineup after not starting the last three games due to a bout with the flu, but went 0-for-3 ... San Diego's Will Venable extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single in the fifth, while the Rockies' Nolan Arenado had a 10-game streak end after going 0-for-3 ... Dickerson recorded his first career three-hit and multi-RBI game and finished the series with six hits -- all for extra bases -- in 10 at-bats ... The Rockies improved to 48-19 when scoring first this season, including a 27-9 mark at Coors Field.
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