averted a series sweep

DENVER -- Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard led the way out of the Philadelphia Phillies offensive slump. San Diego Padres Gear . Rollins homered early, then hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning that sent the Phillies past the Colorado Rockies 10-9 Sunday. Rollins finished with three hits as the Phillies averted a series sweep. Ryan Howard added four hits, including a homer and triple while driving in three runs. "It was good, it was something that was needed," Rollins said. "All those runs were needed. Every time we come here, they find a way to put up some runs. Weve played some interesting series. Today, it was needed to get back in the left column." Philadelphia had gone four games without an extra-base hit before breaking loose. They had scored a total of only two runs in dropping the first two games to Colorado. "It was well overdue," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "Just some good at-bats. Howard really broke out in a good way. It was good to see that good contact. Hitting balls to left centerfield is a good thing for him. He broke out in a big way." Howard finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle. He actually ended up on second on a seventh inning drive to right field that got past a charging Brandon Barnes but the official scorer ruled the RBI hit a single and an error. Sandberg questioned the ruling and Howard said he hopes it will be overturned. "He went for a shoestring catch there, and to me, the ball got by him for a double," Sandberg said. "He went for the catch. Thats not a guarantee that he knocks that down and makes it a single. He went for the catch on a tough ball, for me." Howard hung on to the ball just in case the hit is eventually ruled a double. The last Phillies player to hit for the cycle was David Bell on June 28, 2004, against Montreal. Rockies star outfielder Carlos Gonzalez exited early because of a sore left knee. He appeared to tweak it running out a high chopper to end the sixth inning. He is listed as day to day with left knee tendinitis by the Rockies but Gonzalez said hes been dealing with the issue for more than a year off and on and hopes to be back in the lineup on Monday. "At the moment, it feels bad, but after a while it gets better," Gonzalez said. "Im planning to play (Monday). Its something I have deal with. I just have to be smart about it, and I want to keep playing, so thats what Im planning to do." Justin Morneau homered and drove in five runs for the Rockies. The teams combined for 30 hits, 15 for extra bases. Jake Diekman (2-1) got the win despite allowing two runs in 1 1-3 innings. Jonathan Papelbon earned his fifth save in six chances. Matt Belisle (0-2) gave up Rollins single that broke an 8-all tie. After Rollins put the Phillies ahead in the eighth, Chase Utley added an RBI grounder. Charlie Blackmon homered in the bottom half for Colorado. Philadelphia missed adding an insurance run in the ninth when Rockies manager Walt Weiss challenged the ruling that Freddy Galvis had beaten out a grounder. The replay showed that second baseman Josh Rutledges throw to first arrived an instant before Galvis stepped on the bag. The Phillies used a three-run seventh inning to go in front 8-6 on sacrifice flies by Utley and Domonic Brown and an RBI single by Howard. Colorado evened the score in its half of the seventh when Troy Tulowitzki doubled ahead of Morneaus homer, his second in as many games. The Rockies went up 4-3 with a three-run third that included Tulowitzkis run-scoring double, Morneaus RBI groundout and a tiebreaking RBI single by Nolan Arenado, who extended his hitting streak to a career high 11 games. Howard hit his fourth homer, a two-run shot off Juan Nicasio in the third. NOTES: Sandberg won a replay challenge in the sixth when the review showed pinch hitter Corey Dickersons foot had slipped off the bag when he was tagged at second. ... Rockies OF-INF Michael Cuddyer missed a third consecutive game with a sore left hamstring. Weiss said before the game that while Cuddyer has shown some improvement, his return is still up in the air and the team expects to know in the next day or two whether hell need additional recovery time that would require a stay on the disabled list. ... Three weeks into the season, Rollins has hit three home runs, already equaling half of his total for all of last season. Jackie Robinson Jersey .J. Mayo made seven three-pointers and scored 25 points, Ersan Ilyasova added 20, and the Milwaukee Bucks placed seven players in double figures in a 130-110 rout of the Philadelphia 76ers, who lost their 11th straight game on Monday night. Anderson Espinoza Jersey .com) - Australian Open champion Li Na, former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova and former world No.Smokin-hot Casey Haerther kept hitting line drives, while Matt Jackson continued to be a presence on the mound as the Winnipeg Goldeyes won their fourth straight game and swept the Grand Prairie AirHogs right out of Shaw Park on Thursday afternoon. Jackson threw five full innings of two-hit, shutout baseball before a leg injury sent him to the showers. However, Haerther went four-for-four with three singles and a double, three runs scored and two RBI and capped a sensational week as the Fish beat the Hogs 5-2. With the win, the Goldeyes improved to 18-9 on the season, first in the American Associations North Division. They won their fourth straight game and swept Grand Prairie in this three-game set with wins of 7-6, 8-1 and 4-1. The Goldeyes also improved their home record to 6-4 this season. For Haerther, it was an incredible series. He went 11-for-13 (.846) with three homers, six runs scored and nine runs batted in. His average is now a monstrous .391, best in the American Association. "You have to ride these things as long as you can because they dont come around very often," Haerther said. "Im seeing the ball real good right now. Im also getting good pitches to hit. Im swinging at the pitches I choose to hit and Im not swinging at the pitches the pitchers want me to hit. Im getting deeper into counts and Im not afraid to hit with two strikes. It almost feels like youre not trying. Im just gonna keep doing what Im doing." The Golldeyes, who pounded out 14 hits, opened the scoring with a pair of runs in the second. Edward Olivares Jersey. Donnie Webb led off with a single, stole second and scored on a base hit by Haerther. Haerther came around to score when Jake Blackwood was safe on a two-out error to Grand Prairie shortstop Jimmy Mojica. Winnipeg added two more in the sixth, as Webb again singled and stole second, Haerther singled and eventually came around to score on a single by Tyler Kuhn. The AirHogs answered with a run in the eighth as Palmer Karr Jr. singled off Brendan Lafferty to drive home Mitch Abeita and then they added another turn in the ninth off Kyle Bellamy, but it was too little, too late. The Goldeyes put it out of reach in the bottom of the eighth, as Haerther doubled and scored on a single by Kuhn, who had four hits himself and drove in a pair. His batting average is now .388, good for second in the league.Jackson (4-2, 3.09, ERA) got the win for Winnipeg, while Grand Prairie starter Shawn Spainhoward (0-4, 6.67) suffered the loss. There was no save. The Goldeyes will now open a huge intra-divisional series on Friday night at Shaw Park as the St. Paul Saints come to town for a three-game set. Kyle Anderson (2-1, 0.91 ERA) will get the start for Winnipeg, while Nick Barnese (2-1, 4.39 ERA) will take to the bump for St. Paul. Game time Friday night is 7 p.m., Saturday night the action starts at 6 p.m. and on Sunday afternoon, first pitch is at 1:35. ' ' '