Rockies keep rolling with a Game 1 win

PHOENIX -- The Colorado Rockies had lost once in 25 days with Willy Taveras in the dugout, charging from fourth place in the National League West to Game 1 of the National League Championship Series.

So the decision to put Taveras back at the top of his lineup for Thursday’s NLCS opener wasn’t one Colorado Manager Clint Hurdle made lightly. But it’s one that turned out successfully, with Taveras scoring the go-ahead run to spark the Rockies to a 5-1 over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It’s something I sat down and thought about,” Hurdle said. “And if it doesn’t work, any time you make a move like that, you’re going to wear it. And you should. That’s your job. But you’ve got to do what you believe in.”

Hurdle believed in Taveras, who has missed most of the last two months with a variety of leg ailments. The speedy center fielder rewarded that faith in his second at-bat, singling, stealing a base and coming around to score the first of three third-inning runs that turned a 1-1 tie into a comfortable Colorado lead.

Now if only Hurdle could get somebody to believe in his Rockies. Thursday’s win was the 18th in 19 games for Colorado, a streak left fielder Matt Holliday said even his Little League team never pulled off.

“At this level to run off that many wins is a lot of fun,” he said. “And extremely hard to do.”

Yet outside of Denver -- and possibly San Diego and Philadelphia, whose teams Colorado knocked out of the playoffs -- the reaction has been as much apathy as awe.

“I don’t care if people say ‘Yeah, but.’ Keep saying it,” Holliday said. “It doesn’t matter to us. We’re just going out there and try to play for each other. And we’re not really concerned with anybody outside these walls.”

Added pitcher Jeff Francis, who gave up one run in 6 2/3 innings to best Arizona ace Brandon Webb: “We’re not out here to prove something. We’re out here to win and take it as far as we can.”

It didn’t look as if Francis would go very far Thursday, since he was down 1-0 after nine pitches, with Eric Byrnes following Stephen Drew’s one-out single with an RBI double just inside third base.

But the left-hander, who tied a franchise record with 17 wins in the regular season before beating the Phillies in the division series, gave up just three more hits over the next 5 2/3 innings.

Webb had one of those hits but he was less effective on the mound. The Rockies tied the score in the second inning when Troy Tulowitzki grounded into a double play with the bases loaded.

Colorado went ahead to stay in its next at-bat with Taveras scoring the first of three runs. And, not surprisingly, Webb’s nemesis Brad Hawpe delivered the key blow, driving in two runs with a two-out bases-loaded single to right.

Webb was 18-10 during the regular season but 1-3 against Colorado, largely because Hawpe hit .600 with 11 RBIs in 15 at-bats against him.

“Webb’s really tough. He’s as good as there is in this league,” Hawpe said. “As far as bases loaded or two outs, it’s just something I try to think of the pitcher is the one in trouble . . . and I’m in the driver’s seat.”

The Diamondbacks now find themselves fighting history. The 1990 Cincinnati Reds were the last team to lose the first game of the NLCS at home and rally to win the series.

“It’s always big to get the first one . . . on the road,” Colorado’s Todd Helton said. “Especially with the way the fans have been at home.”

Arizona’s fans weren’t quite as good, causing play to be suspended briefly in the seventh inning when Hurdle took his team off the field after fans began throwing debris in protest of an interference call at second.

“We get tired of having water bottles thrown on the field,” Hurdle said. “That’s all. It’s just there comes a time where you need to make a point that enough’s enough.”

kevin.baxter@latimes.com