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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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GAME LOG
DENVER (AP) -- Todd Helton spent his 27th birthday the way he
wanted.
|  | | Todd Helton connects for his 31st homer during Sunday's victory. |
Helton homered, drove in three runs and raised his batting
average to .398 to lead the Colorado Rockies to a 13-4 victory over
the Florida Marlins on Sunday.
"Getting a home run is tough enough, but on your birthday?"
Helton said. "You can't expect to hit home runs on every at-bat
and you have to get lucky to get them."
Helton, who was 2-for-4, is 25-for-42 with four homers and 17
RBIs during a 12-game hitting streak. He also hit his 48th double,
tying the club record set by Dante Bichette in 1998.
The crowd of 38,498 sang "Happy Birthday" to Helton while he
warmed up before the eighth inning.
"I've never had that many people sing to me, but that is a
credit to the team as much as anyone else," Helton said. "They
are all thinking about .400. That's something I won't think about
until the season is over."
Pedro Astacio (10-8) gave up three runs and eight hits in his
third complete game this season. He struck out eight to win for the
first time in four starts.
"This was as good as it gets," Colorado manager Buddy Bell
said. "It was nice to see what Helton did, but we got great
defense from Neifi Perez and what we have come to expect from Pedro
Astacio."
Jeff Cirillo added three doubles and three RBI to reach 100
RBI for the first time in his career for the Rockies, who took two
out of three from the Marlins.
Mark Kotsay had a two-run double and Henry Rodriguez had two
hits for Florida. Jesus Sanchez (8-9), who won his last two starts,
worked 3 2/3 innings and was roughed up for eight runs and eight
hits.
"We got beat by Pedro Astacio," Florida manager John Boles
said. "You can talk about defense, but if you take off the four
runs he gave up, Pedro still beat us."
Cirillo gave the Rockies a 1-0 lead in the first inning with an
RBI double off the right-field wall.
The Marlins scored three runs in the third on Kotsay's two-run
double and Rodriguez's RBI bloop single.
The Rockies tied it 3-3 on consecutive RBI doubles by Cirillo
and Helton.
Colorado chased Sanchez with a five-run fourth. Ben Petrick led
off the inning with his second homer of the year, Jeff Frye doubled
and Astacio walked on four pitches. Perez had an RBI single,
Cirillo added a sacrifice fly and Helton homered to center.
The Rockies added two runs in the fifth when second baseman Luis
Castillo booted Astacio's double-play grounder allowing Butch
Huskey and Petrick to score.
Jeffrey Hammonds singled in two runs in the Colorado eighth and
Petrick had a sacrifice fly.
Mike Redmond's RBI double in the ninth made it 13-4.
"The way Pedro pitches in this park is amazing," Rodriguez
said. "We didn't hit a lot today because he pitched a great
game."
Game
notes
The game had a three-man umpiring crew as Mike Reilly
missed the game due to an illness in his family. ... Florida
shortstop Alex Gonzalez showed improvement in a pregame workout,
but hasn't been cleared to return from the DL. ... Colorado's Juan
Pierre has a 13-game hitting streak. ... The second run marked the
500th the Rockies have scored at Coors Field. ... Helton is
6-for-14 on his four birthdays with the Rockies. ... Astacio has
all three of Colorado's complete games this season.
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ALSO SEE
Baseball Scoreboard
Florida Clubhouse
Colorado Clubhouse
RECAPS
Cleveland 12
Seattle 4
Oakland 5
Detroit 4
Anaheim 5
NY Yankees 4
Toronto 6
Minnesota 3
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Kansas City 1
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Chi. White Sox 11
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Boston 2
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St. Louis 0
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NY Mets 9
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Arizona 5
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