Colorado Rockies bury Bucs; Holliday has two-run homer

The win stopped an eight-game losing streak.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The Colorado Rockies have had problems in the last two weeks scoring runs and holding on to early leads.
They didn't have any of those problems Tuesday night.
Matt Holliday hit a two-run homer, Jamie Carroll drove in three runs and the Rockies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 13-4 to stop an eight-game losing streak.
"Nice way for our offense to kind of break out of somewhat of a team-wide slump we have been in," Holliday said. "Hopefully we have turned the page on what was a bad (13) days and we can now move forward."
Big hitters
Yorvit Torrealba went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and Choo Freeman scored twice and drove in two runs for the Rockies, who had scored a total of eight runs in their previous four games.
"You look up and down the order," said Clint Barmes, who had two hits and scored a run, "and everybody was doing their part as far as driving in the runs tonight."
Jeff Francis (7-8) won for only the second time since June 12. He struck out six in seven innings, allowing one earned run and eight hits with one intentional walk.
"I think this win goes to the offense," Francis said. "They were struggling the last couple games but they came up big-time."
Colorado held a lead in five of the eight defeats but was outscored 28-14 after the sixth inning in its losing skid. The Rockies had gone 3-for-36 with runners in scoring position in their previous three contests but had four of those hits Tuesday night.
"We got good at-bats throughout the lineup tonight," manager Clint Hurdle said. "We were much more patient, a little more disciplined, we just showed up good. The most pleasing thing might be so many people had in a hand in what we did tonight offensively up and down the lineup."
All-inclusive
Every starting position player had at least one hit except for Garrett Atkins, who walked and scored three times.
The Rockies pushed across three runs in the second inning against Tom Gorzelanny, who was making his third start of the season. Luis Gonzalez and Carroll had sacrifice flies, and Torrealba scored on a throwing error by Gorzelanny.
"It didn't start well," Pirates manager Jim Tracy said. "And it snowballed."
Torrealba and Carroll had two-run doubles in the third to help Colorado build a 7-0 lead.
Gorzelanny (0-2) allowed seven runs, five earned, and four hits with five walks in 22/3 innings. He has a 9.26 ERA after three starts with the Pirates after being one of the best pitchers in Triple-A, where he posted a 2.35 ERA in 16 starts for Indianapolis.
"This is the worst outing I think I ever had in my life," Gorzelanny said.
Jason Bay doubled in a run in the third and Freddy Sanchez had a sacrifice fly in the seventh but that was all the runs for the Pirates against Francis.
Big boost
"To come out with seven runs in the first three innings helps you relax a little bit," Francis said. "But you still have to go after guys and you still have to get outs because they are capable of scoring the same amount of runs."
Holliday's homer to straightaway center in the sixth gave Colorado a 10-1 lead. Freeman added a two-run triple later in the inning.
"We showed ourselves were capable of doing some good things," Hurdle said. "We put a nice package together tonight."
Jason Smith, in his first game back with Colorado since being summoned from Triple-A Monday, hit a solo drive in the ninth for his third home run of the season.
Sanchez went 2-for-4 with two RBIs to raise his National League-leading batting average to .365, and Craig Wilson had two hits and an RBI for the Pirates.