Braves Lose 3 Straight For 1st Time in 2 Months

DENVER (AP) — Jorge De La Rosa pitched seven effective innings and Carlos Gonzalez hit his 26th home run to lead the Colorado Rockies to a 5-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday night.

Seth Smith also homered and Eric Young had a career-high three hits for the Rockies.

Huston Street worked the ninth for his 12th save.

Alex Gonzalez homered and had two RBIs for Atlanta, which has lost three straight for the first time in two months.

De La Rosa (5-4) had his best outing since missing nearly three months with a torn pulley tendon on his left middle finger. He allowed two runs and six hits, struck out seven, walked one in earning his second win since coming off the disabled list July 9.

After giving up Gonzalez’s fourth home run to make it 2-1 in the second inning the Braves couldn’t solve De La Rosa. He retired 14 of the next 16 batters, and the only one who gave him trouble was pitcher Derek Lowe, who singled in the third and drew a leadoff walk in the sixth. Lowe was erased when Colorado turned one of its four double plays.

De La Rosa faltered in the seventh. He struck out the first two batters of the inning but when he went 1-0 on Matt Diaz, manager Jim Tracy and trainer Keith Dugger went to the mound to look at the lefty’s pitching hand. He stayed in the game and Diaz singled to right, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Alex Gonzalez’s single to make it 3-2.

De La Rosa got Melky Cabrera to ground out to end the inning.

The Rockies gave their starter the lead right away. Young hit a grounds-rule double to lead off the bottom of the first and one out later Gonzalez hit Lowe’s 1-2 slider into the Colorado bullpen to give the Rockies a 2-0 lead.

The Rockies had chances to extend the lead. Young was stranded at third twice, including when Colorado loaded the bases in the fifth. Todd Helton, coming off his first four-hit game in more than a year, hit a broken-bat lineout to second to end the threat.

Smith gave De La Rosa breathing room when he led off the sixth with his 15th home run to make it 3-1.

The Rockies added two unearned runs in the ninth on Dexter Fowler’s two-out, bases-loaded single off reliever Takashi Saito.

Lowe (11-12) allowed three runs and six hits, walked two and struck out four in six innings.

Game notes
Braves 2B Omar Infante extended his hitting streak to a career-best 13 games with an infield single to lead off the game. … Rockies RHP Aaron Cook (turf toe) is scheduled to make his next rehab start for Double-A Tulsa on Saturday.