No Shortage Of Rain Or Excitement: Todd Helton's Walk Off HR Beats Pittsburgh

Saturday night''s game pitted the Colorado Rockies at home against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

While the Pirates have been lackluster lately, going 5-5 in their last 10 games, the Rockies have been so hot the snow is melting.

Colorado has won nine of its last 10, and 14-of-15 overall.

The pitching duel was a good one, featuring two young guns. Colorado sent out one of their better starters this season in Jason Hammel, who was pitching for his fifth straight win—and he came out pitching well.

Pittsburgh sent out Charlie Morton for his first start of the season, and the young pitcher kept the Rockies off balance early with fastballs interchanged with chaneups.

Second Inning Brings Excitement

Hammell gave up a run scoring double to Brandon Moss in the top of second inning, as Moss hit the ball deep to the warning track—about 10 feet left of the 390 sign in left center field.

Carlos Gonzalez was close with all his speed, but had to play the ball off a bounce. He fired the ball into Troy Tulowitzki, who threw a laser to the plate but LaRoche still scored.

Then in the bottom of the second, Tulowitzki was walked, and then Ian Stewart smashed the ball off the right field fence for a double—scoring a racing Tulo home, and tying the game at one apiece. 

Morton seemed to be losing his cool, as Gonzalez hit a ball deep to center, moving Stewart over to third. Morton then he walked Chris Ianetta. Luckily for Morton, Hammel did not want to swing the bat and got Morton out of the inning.

Third Fruitful for Pirates

Sanchez's hit a ball to the gap and Fowler got to it before it got to the wall—but Morgan still scored with his speed from first base. 2-1 Pirates.

Bottom of the Fourth

Ian Stewart came up huge again, as he has many times lately, taking the ball deep to right center field and digging out a triple with only one out. Next up, Gonzalez hit a ball up the middle for a single to score Stewart and tie the game at two.

After giving up some runs early, Hammell tightened down in the middle of the game, and had a seven-pitch fifth inning.

Fifth Inning Hustle for Both Teams

Dexter Fowler beat out a infield single, then utilized his blazing speed to steal second base. But it was all for not, as McCutchen had an amazing sno-cone catch to rob Todd Helton of at least a double, and a sure RBI.

The catch, according to Rockies' play-by-play man Drew Goodman, was "As good a catch we've seen all year."

Sixth Inning Brings fireworks for Rockies

Hammell got himself into a jam, allowing runners to get to first and second base with one out. But Hammell popped up and made Moss ground into the inning-ending out.

Then in the bottom of the sixth, Ian Stewart propelled himself to a great game for the Rockies tonight. Stewart, who had hit a triple and double, smashed a deep homerun over the center field fence. At this point in the game, Stewart had knocked in three of the four runs in the night. 

Top of the seventh was melt-down time for Hammell

Hammell gave up two singles and a walk, then was smartly pulled by Tracy. He finished with six innings pitched, eight hits for five earned runs, four strikeouts and two walks. Then, Daley came in from the porus bullpen and gave up a triple. The Pirates scored four runs in the inning to regain the lead 6-4.

Bullpen, Fielding: Full of Bull for Colorado in eighth

Embree gave up a very hard hit double to Andy LaRoche on the first pitch of the eighth inning.

Then, Clint Barmes, who is usually solid in the field, missed a ground ball off his club, and the ball went into the outfield, scoring the Pirates' seventh run. Embree was pulled in favor of  Perolta, who continued the trend.

After Perolta gave up a hit to his first opponent, the eight of the ten Pirates batters had reached base.

Then Perolta got hot, as he grabbed a grounder to throw out a runner going to third, then picked off Haramio on second base for the second out of the inning. Perolta got a strikeout to finish off the inning, and the Rockies had strong hitters up in the bottom of the eighth.

Colorado would need clutch hitting as they were now down 7-4.

Bottom of the 8th and Bottom of Rockies Lineup Create Production

Brad Hawpe was up as Brandon Grabow walked him to start the Rockies' half of the inning. Tulowitzki was up next, but struck out on four pitches.

As Stewart stepped up to the plate next, he was a single shy of the cycle. But  Grabow's great slider in the dirt made Stewart looked as silly as Tulowtizki. 

But Gonzalez, one of the Rockies' youngest players, hit a clutch single up the middle to continue the inning.

Ianetta came up to the plate with nine homeruns, looking to do some damage and bring home at least a run.

Coors Field was re-energized and cheered.

He got down 0-and-2 early, but then took a hanging fastball deep to straight center field, to the tune of around 440 feet. Ianetta tied the game 7-7 with his 10th homerun of the season, and set up the game for a historic ending.

9th Inning Magic for Colorado

Huston Street, the Rockies closer, who completed all five of his save chances last week to the NL Player of the Week honors, came in to attempt to seal the deal for Colorado.

After getting the first man to ground out, Street gave up a single to Morgan (who went 4-for-4 that night) just to the left of Clint Barmes.

Freddie Sanchez, the Pirates best hitter, came up to bat against Street, who got him to strikeout. But Morgan got to third on the misplay by Omar Quintanilla, who was brought in for Barmes on the double switch.

Street got another batter to ground into a grounder, and the Rockies were out of the 9th with no damage done.

Dexter Fowler hit into a grounder, but Seth Smith, pinch-hitting for Street, got a hit just to the right of first base.

On came the only Rockies legend, Todd Helton.

He had six career walkoff homeruns before tonight, and added his seventh on Saturday night with a two run shot that won the game 9-7 for Colorado.

The win was Colorado's 15th in their 16 games played—the Rockies are easily the hottest team in baseball.

Colorado is now 34-33, finally a game over .500, and are a mere 9.5 games back in the NL West—a five game improvement since this fantastic run began.

Overall, it was the greatest, and most memorable game of the 2009 season so far. There were four homeruns, a Colorado player almost hit for the cycle, and the game was won on a walkoff by the Rockies legend, Helton.

This is what truly makes baseball, America's game, great. Anyone can win, and any team can comeback from early troubles in this insanely long MLB season.

In other news, Manny Corpas went on the 15-day DL due to a bone chip in his throwing elbow.