Rockies Get Swift Answer : Baseball: Pitcher unsure of ailing shoulder comes through in 10-2 victory over Padres.

A wing and a prayer? This is the way it is as the Colorado Rockies continue to piece together a rotation short of picking names out of a hat.

The modest prayer Wednesday night was that Bill Swift, scheduled for postseason shoulder surgery and estimating he is only about 70% physically, could finesse another five innings, as he had in each of two starts since his second stint on the disabled list.

Swift answered the prayer and more.

Although unsure he should be doing this and unable to throw his trademark sinker because of shoulder discomfort, Swift got the Rockies into the sixth inning, allowing the San Diego Padres only three hits and one earned run, before the rubber arms of the bullpen preserved a 10-2 victory that also preserved Colorado’s 1 1/2 game lead over the Dodgers in the National League West.

“I’m looking forward to getting the shoulder cleaned out during the winter and starting over again next year,” said Swift, the $13.3- million free agent who will next tempt fate Monday night against the Dodgers.

“In the meantime, all I’m trying to do is keep us in the game for as long as I can and hope I can make the right pitch when I need to.”

The Rockies are only the sixth team since the beginning of division play in 1969 to have four relievers with 60 or more appearances. Steve Reed (65), Darrin Holmes (62), Bruce Ruffin, who has been limited to 28 because of two stints on the disabled list, and Curtis Leskanic (69) shut out the Padres over the last 3 2/3 innings. Mike Munoz has 60 appearances.

Swift is 8-2 and has won seven consecutive decisions scattered over 10 starts and three months.

“I’m glad, at least, that I’ve been able to come back and pitch now, but I don’t know how long it will last,” he said. “It’s a real difficult situation. The inflammation is down, but the general discomfort is not something that will go away and I find that I’m tentative and unsure.

“Subconsciously I keep wondering, ‘Is it going to tear with this pitch, the next pitch?’ They say it’s unlikely I can damage it more, but I don’t know if I believe that.”

It held together for Swift as the Rockies provided a 16-hit cushion in rebounding from Tuesday night’s 15-4 drubbing.

Walt Weiss, the invaluable shortstop and No. 8 hitter, became the first Colorado player to score five runs in a game as he walked, singled twice, tripled and hit his first home run since April 23, 1994. The span of 750 at-bats without a homer was the third longest among active players behind Rafael Belliard and Otis Nixon. The switch-hitting Weiss hit this one left-handed. He had not done that in 1,123 at-bats.

Dante Bichette, now batting .342, enhanced his MVP bid with three singles and a double.

John Vander Wal came off the Colorado bench to deliver another pinch hit, his 25th in 67 assignments, to tie the major league record set by Jose Morales of the Montreal Expos in 1976.