Hampton Finds a Coziness to Coors, Rockies Win, 8-0

Maybe Mike Hampton and Coors Field really can coexist.

Hampton, who surprised many by signing with Colorado four months ago, gave up five hits in 8 1/3 scoreless innings Monday as the Rockies opened the season with an 8-0 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Denver.

When he left the game after two consecutive walks in the ninth, Hampton tipped his cap to acknowledge a standing ovation--his third of the day.

“That was great,” Hampton said. “It was a great gesture on their part. Hopefully it happens about 20, 25 more times.”

Todd Walker and Larry Walker each hit two-run homers for the Rockies, who again made life miserable for St. Louis starter Darryl Kile.

Kile, who is 11-15 with a 6.76 earned-run average at Coors Field, gave up six runs and 11 hits in five innings. The performance was an improvement from a last season, when he surrendered 11 runs, eight earned, and eight hits in 1 2/3 innings in his lone appearance at the ballpark.

Unlike Kile, Hampton does not rely heavily on a curveball and proved for at least one game that he has the arsenal to pitch at altitude. Of his 25 outs, 13 came on ground balls. He also had five strikeouts and made a handful of athletic plays in the field.

“Great, great performance,” Rocky Manager Buddy Bell said. “Obviously, we don’t need that every time out. He had some help, but the energy he provides is something extra.”

Atlanta 10, Cincinnati 4--Rafael Furcal homered and drove in a career-high four runs at Cincinnati.

Furcal had a pair of sacrifice flies, a run-scoring single and a solo homer against loser Dennys Reyes that broke a 4-4 tie in the seventh.

Andruw Jones also homered for the Braves and Quilvio Veras drove in three runs with a bases-loaded double.

Philadelphia 6, Florida 5--Reliever Amaury Telemaco pitched four shutout innings for the victory at Miami and scored the tiebreaking run on Doug Glanville’s grounder against Vladimir Nunez in the 13th inning.

Scott Rolen had a sacrifice fly, walked twice and hit a two-out solo homer in the seventh against Braden Looper to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead.

But Jose Mesa, who blew a save on the same mound as a member of the Indians when the Marlins won Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, balked in the tying run in the ninth.

Montreal 5, Chicago 4--Vladimir Guerrero hit a go-ahead single in the 10th and Jose Vidro had a two-run homer for the Expos at Chicago.

Winner Graeme Lloyd got only one out, getting a grounder to escape a big jam in the ninth and send the game into extra innings.

Ugueth Urbina pitched the 10th for his first save.