Hot Tulowitzki scorches Padres with 2 HRs, 7 RBI

Troy Tulowitzki is on such a September surge, he'll surely hate to see the calendar flip - unless the Colorado Rockies are still playing deep into October.

And if he stays this hot, they just might.

Tulowitzki had his third multihomer game in a little more than a week and tied a career high with seven RBI to help the host Rockies beat the NL West-leading San Diego Padres, 9-6, yesterday and avoid a series sweep.

The smooth-fielding shortstop's 11 homers in September are just one shy of tying the franchise mark for any month - and he still has half a month left to go.

"The game's not that easy. I'm just hot right now," Tulowitzki said. "I'm continually trying to remind myself to enjoy this while it last. It's not going to last forever."

The Padres' loss and San Francisco's victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers trimmed San Diego's lead over the Giants in the NL West to one-half game.

Powered by Tulowitzki and Jorge De La Rosa, who gave Colorado's beleaguered bullpen a break by pitching into the eighth, the Rockies climbed within 2 1/2 games of San Diego. They also closed within 2 1/2 games of Atlanta in the wild-card race.

As locked in as Tulowitzki has been lately, Rockies manager Jim Tracy figured he would lead the team out of its two-game mini-funk.

"This is as competitive a player as I've ever seen," Tracy said. "You could tell from that first at-bat that he wasn't going to let us lose."

San Diego's Adrian Gonzalez nearly matched Tulowitzki's offensive production. The first baseman hit two homers to run his season total to 29, including a three-run shot in the eighth that wiped out half of a 9-3 deficit. He finished with five RBI.

De La Rosa (8-4) yielded five runs and six hits in 7 1/3 innings.

Colorado won the final game of a three-game series - not exactly what the team had in mind when the slumping Padres arrived at Coors Field on Monday. The Rockies were riding a 10-game winning streak and had designs on overtaking the Padres.

"It goes without saying - we needed that game. We simply needed that game," Tracy said.

NL MVP candidate Carlos Gonzalez finished 2-for-4 with two RBI, increasing his NL leads in batting average (.341) and RBI (106).

Tulowitzki is making a late MVP push, as well, despite missing 33 games with a broken wrist. He went 3-for-5 to raise his average to .325, second to Carlos Gonzalez.

In other games:

* At San Francisco, Matt Cain allowed just three hits in seven innings and the Giants defeated the Dodgers, 2-1, to draw within one-half game of first-place San Diego in the NL West.

* At Houston, Mat Gamel hit the go-ahead double in the 10th inning that led Milwaukee over the Astros, 8-6, and enabled the Brewers to avoid a series sweep. Astros starter J.A. Happ gave up seven runs and five hits in 4 1/3 innings.

* At New York, Angel Pagan capped the Mets' seven-run fourth inning with a tiebreaking, two-run single as they handed Pittsburgh another road loss, 8-7. The defeat dropped the Pirates to 15-58 on the road and could threaten the 1963 Mets' record for worst road mark (17-64) in a 162-game season.

* At Cincinnati, Drew Stubbs homered and the Reds' deep bullpen held off Arizona with the help of a homer-saving catch by rightfielder Jay Bruce as they moved one step closer to the NL Central title with a 7-5 win. Cincinnati starter Homer Bailey left the game after three innings with dizziness.

* At St. Louis, Carlos Zambrano (9-6) pitched six innings of two-run ball, Tyler Colvin hit a three-run homer and the Chicago Cubs beat the sliding Cardinals, 7-3, to complete their first three-game sweep in St. Louis since June 10-12, 1988.