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Colorado edges Houston to snap Astros' eight-game win streak

Fri 5th, September 2008

Denver, CO (Sports Network) - Clint Barmes homered and Ubaldo Jimenez pitched six-plus solid innings, leading the Colorado Rockies to a 5-3 victory over the Houston Astros at Coors Field.

Brad Hawpe scored two runs and drove in another while Garrett Atkins, Chris Iannetta and Troy Tulowitzki each had an RBI for Colorado, which has won three of four and has pulled within five games of the struggling Arizona Diamondbacks, who lost 7-0 to the Dodgers Friday night.

Jimenez (10-12) allowed three runs on five hits and a walk, and struck out six in this opener of a three-game set. Brian Fuentes pitched a perfect ninth for his 27th save of the year.

"I liked the way he was able to pound the strike zone with his fastball, and his ability to get ahead of hitters," Iannetta said of his pitcher. "Even when he did get behind hitters, he didn't go to anything offspeed. He just kept attacking with his fastball."

Darin Erstad went 2-for-4 with a run scored, and Ty Wigginton had a hit and drove in a run for the Astros, who had an eight-game winning streak snapped.

"We had a day off, and we came out a little sluggish," Astros manager Cecil Cooper said. "Sometimes when you have a day off it makes it a little difficult to bounce back. We had some momentum, but sometimes a day off cools you off a little bit."

Brian Moehler (10-6) took the loss after giving up five runs on six hits in just 4 2/3 innings while striking out four and walking three.

Colorado broke the scoreless tie in the fourth. Willy Taveras reached on an infield single and Matt Holliday was hit by a pitch. Hawpe followed with an RBI single, and Atkins hit a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0. Three batters later Tulowitzki added an RBI single to plate Hawpe for the third run.

Barmes gave the Rockies a 4-0 lead by leading off the fifth with his eighth homer of the year. Iannetta drew a two-out walk with the bases loaded later in the inning to plate another run.

Houston got on the board in the sixth. Michael Bourn worked a walk, stole second and advanced to third on Jimenez's throwing error. Geoff Blum drove him home a couple batters later on an RBI single to make it 5-1.

The Astros cut the deficit to two in the seventh. Erstad hit an infield single and advanced to second when Humberto Quintero was hit by a pitch. That ended Jimenez's day as Manuel Corpas came on. He induced a groundout that advanced the runners, and Bourn hit an RBI groundout to plate Erstad. Wigginton followed with an RBI single for Houston's second run of the inning.

Game Notes

The Rockies lead the season series 3-1...The all-time series between the clubs is tied 65-65...Houston is 32-16 since July 11.