Rockies Ride Into Philadelphia, Win Series Opener

Coming into Tuesday night's game with the Phillies, the Colorado Rockies had won four straight and had quickly turned around an ill-fated road trip after dropping the first three games in New York.

The Rockies were able to run the streak to five in a row after pounding the Phillies 8-3. 

Playing against the 2008 World Series champions, the Rockies would love to come away with a series victory and head home with a winning road trip. 

Knowing that the Phillies acquired defending AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee on Thursday, the Rockies needed to get a win early in the series to give themselves some breathing room. With Jason Hammel on the hill for the Rox, the offense needed to step up and get the job done. 

Hammel struggled all throughout the month of July.

He carried his typical home struggles with him on the road.  Those struggles culminated in getting chased in the second inning against the Mets after giving up five runs in the first frame opposite Johan Santana.

While the offense put runs on the board, Hammel's performance last night was a huge confidence booster for the Rockies.

He worked into the seventh inning, giving up three runs on nine hits. Hammel struck out nine Phillies and threw his breaking ball with confidence. 

Though Hammel's line was nothing spectacular, his performance goes beyond the box score.

In the bottom of the third inning, staked to a 2-0 lead, Hammel had runners on first and second with two outs. He then hit Chase Utley with a curveball and was forced to face slugging lefty Ryan Howard with the bases loaded.

After running the count full, it looked like Hammel would groove a fastball and hope for the best, which usually results in the worst.

Instead, Hammel delivered a hard curve ball on the inside half of the plate. Howard swung through the pitch and the Rockies were out of the inning. 

That was the biggest pitch of the night.

The lineup, tweaked slightly for opposing lefty Jamie Moyer, came to life.

Garrett Atkins, getting a rare start, showed how deep this Rockies offense is.

In the second inning after Ryan Spilborghs reached base, Atkins drilled a pitch into the left field seats to give Colorado a 2-0 lead. 

Despite the Rockies road trip winning streak, the offense has looked like it did during the first two months of the season. Instead of getting and adding to a lead, they are blowing leads, left to wonder why they lost the game. 

That ended on Tuesday night.

The lineup went up 4-0, and then after the Phillies put two runs on the board, the Rockies offense came back and put a four spot on the board in the sixth inning.

The win shows the Rockies can dominate a game when their struggling fifth starter pitches and when two everyday players take a day off.  

If Hammel can pitch as well as he did on Tuesday and Jorge De La Rosa can continue gaining confidence, the Rockies will make every game extremely difficult for opposing offenses.

Both Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler, youngsters that the Rockies are depending on, have started to turn the corner.

Both players are tremendously talented, but have had their fair share of struggles.

Recently, however, Gonzalez has learned to lay off the breaking ball outside of the strike zone while Fowler continues to mature as a player, collecting a game winning hit on Sunday and a scoring drive off the right center field wall Tuesday night.

Because they don’t get too much national attention, the Rockies will continue to surprise opponents on the road.  While other teams underestimate them, the Rockies play like contenders.