Rockies battle D'backs into extra innings
PHOENIX -- Eric Byrnes' one-out grounder in the ninth inning drove in the tying run, and the Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies were tied at 2-2 after nine innings in Game 2 of the NL championship series Friday night.
With one out, Colorado closer Manny Corpas hit Chris Young with a 1-2 pitch.
Stephen Drew singled to center, sending Young to third. Then Byrnes hit a slow chopper to second baseman Kaz Matsui, whose flip to second pulled Troy Tulowitzki off the bag.
Young scored, and Drew was called safe at second. Byrnes was safe at first and Matsui was charged with an error.
But Drew, apparently thinking he was out, began jogging toward the dugout. Tulowitzki, who had started to argue with second base umpire Tom Hallion, saw Drew run and tossed to third baseman Jamey Carroll, who tagged Drew out for the second out.
Tony Clark grounded out to end the inning.
It was Corpas' first blown save of the postseason in four chances.
Todd Helton's sacrifice fly gave the Colorado Rockies a 2-1 lead after six innings.
Willy Taveras' speed helped produce the tiebreaking run. Taveras led off the fifth by drawing a four-pitch walk from Doug Davis, went to second on Kaz Matsui's single and raced to third on Matt Holliday's fly to left field, barely beating Eric Byrnes' throw.
Taveras scored on Helton's sacrifice fly to left.
Left off the first-round playoff roster, Taveras was added for the NLCS after missing 24 games with leg injuries.
Having defeated Arizona ace Brandon Webb in the opener, the streaking Rockies were looking to take a 2-0 lead back to Denver, where the best-of-seven series will resume Sunday. They had won 18 of 19 coming in.
The Diamondbacks broke out their black jerseys, forcing the Rockies to wear gray with pinstripes instead of the black tops they wore in the opener.
But the change in colors didn't help Arizona's slumping bats. The Diamondbacks' biggest hit came from the weak-hitting Davis, who led off the third with a double to right field off Colorado starter Ubaldo Jimenez. Davis scored on Chris Young's single through the right side of the infield, tying the score 1-1.
Davis turned in a typical outing, allowing 2 runs -- 1 earned -- in 5 innings. He allowed 5 hits, walked four and struck out five.
Jimenez was also lifted after five. He gave up a run and five hits, walking four and striking out six.
Jimenez worked out of a jam in the fifth. He walked the bases loaded with two outs before striking out Mark Reynolds on three pitches.
Colorado took a 1-0 lead in the second on Yorvit Torrealba's bloop single. That made Torrealba 6-for-14 in the playoffs.
The Rockies took the lead after Reynolds let Helton's grounder to third go through his legs for an error to open the inning.
After Davis struck out Garrett Atkins and Troy Tulowitzki, Brad Hawpe singled to center, sending Helton to third. It was Hawpe's sixth hit in 15 playoff at-bats this year.
Torrealba, the No. 8 hitter, followed with a soft liner that hit the right-field line, scoring Helton and sending Hawpe to third.
Davis struck out Jimenez to end the inning.