Franklin Morales pitched six innings of 4-hit ball, while striking out six batters as the Colorado Rockies (2-1) defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks (1-2) by a score of 9-2.
The only real damage allowed by Morales was a solo home run off the bat of Stephen Drew in the bottom of the first inning. However, that only tied the game, as it came after Dexter Fowler's first Major League home run, off of Doug Davis, on the first pitch of the game. From there, Morales recorded all three first inning outs via the K, and continued to pitch well after that until exiting after the sixth inning.
Yorvit Torrealba and Ian Stewart, each of whom had two hits on the afternoon, also homered for the Rockies (in consecutive at-bats in the seventh inning off of Billy Buckner), who have shown exceptionally more power at this point of this season, as compared to 2008. Stewart's homer came in a pinch-hit appearance, and was the last half of the Rockies' second instance of back-to-back home runs in three games. In addition, Troy Tulowitzki walked three times and had a base hit, and Ryan Spilborgs had two hits and two RBIs.
Jason Grilli and Manny Corpas eached pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Morales, and Ryan Speier closed the door in the ninth, despite hitting Chris Young with a pitch and allowing him to score on a ground out.
Colorado's series victory was their first over Arizona since the 2007 National League Championship series. Despite this only being the first series of the season, it looks like the Rox are starting to get some of their swagger back. They'll look to keep the momentum going on Friday, as they open Coors Field for the 2009 season against the defending World Series champs, the Philadelphia Phillies at 2:10 PM MDT. Jason Marquis is the scheduled starter for the Rockies, and he faces a tough test - he'll go up against reigning World Series MVP Cole Hamels.
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