Padres Season Ends in 13th Inning

DENVER (Ticker) -- The Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres put the "wild" in the wild card. Matt Holliday and Jamey Carroll allowed the Rockies to continue their wild ride. Holliday tripled in the tying run and Carroll hit a sacrifice fly against Trevor Hoffman as the Rockies rallied for three runs in the bottom of the 13th inning to win for the 14th time in 15 games, 9-8 over the Padres in the National League wild card tiebreaker on Monday.

After Scott Hairston delivered a two-run homer off Jorge Julio in the top half of the frame to give San Diego an 8-6 lead, Kaz Matsui and Troy Tulowitzki led off the bottom half with consecutive doubles before Holliday blasted an offering from Hoffman (4-5) deep off the right field wall, scoring Tulowitzki with the tying run. After Todd Helton was intentionally walked, Carroll lined the first pitch to right field. Holliday tagged up and just beat the throw home from Brian Giles, although replays indicated that Holliday did not touch the plate.

The Rockies mobbed Holliday at home plate, but the All-Star slugger was injured from his collision with Padres catcher Michael Barrett. He stayed on the ground for a few moments after landing on his face and catching his hand in Barrett's cleats. Five minutes after the game, Holliday seemed fine as Todd Helton jumped on him on the field just outside the dugout. "I feel fine. I got my hand stepped on and banged my head," Holliday said. "I'm OK now." Holliday's heroics helped make up for his misplay in the eighth inning that allowed San Diego to tie the game at 6-6. Giles hit a fly ball to left, and Holliday took a step in before retreating, but the ball went over his head for a double. "It would have been a long offseason," Holliday said if the Rockies had lost. "I took one bad step forward." Holliday also ended innings by striking out with runners in scoring position in the sixth and eighth innings.

Ramon Ortiz (5-4) relieved Julio to get the win with a scoreless inning. It was only fitting that the seventh one-game playoff in major league history - and first since 1999 - go extra innings. San Diego overcame 3-0 and 6-5 deficits to get the game into extra innings. This game was billed as the hottest team in the league against its top pitcher. Colorado entered winning 13 of their final 14 games to force a playoff while San Diego, which had a chance to clinch a postseason berth on Saturday but suffered a 4-3 defeat in 11 innings to Milwaukee when closer Trevor Hoffman was one strike away closing the win, lost its final two contests.

Peavy, the likely NL Cy Young winner, entered the start leading the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts and was 10-1 with a 2.24 ERA in his last 14 starts, but yielded six runs and 11 hits in 6 1/3 innings. Colorado jumped on Peavy with two quick runs in the first inning. Matsui led off with a double to right field, Tulowitzki advanced Matsui to third with an infield single - his first of four hits - and Holliday walked to load the bases. Todd Helton followed with a sacrifice fly to deep center field and Garrett Atkins lined a single to left-center, plating Tulowitzki for a 2-0 edge. Peavy retired the next two batters to escape, but Torrealba led off the second by drilling a 2-1 slider up-and-in into the left field stands for his eighth homer and a 3-0 edge. But San Diego scored five times in the third off

Colorado starter Josh Fogg to take a 5-3 lead. Adrian Gonzalez hit a first-pitch sinker over the right field fence for a grand slam and his 30th home run of the season. San Diego then loaded the bases and took a 5-3 lead when Brady Clark hit into an RBI fielder's choice. Helton halved the deficit in the bottom half with his 17th home run and the Rockies tied it at 5-5 in the fifth. Tulowitzki led off with a double and Holliday followed with a line single to left-center, plating the tying run. In just the eighth at-bat of his major league career, Smith delivered a one-out triple in the sixth off Peavy that hit off the center field wall for his fifth hit - all pinch hits - of the season. Matsui followed with a fly ball to shallow center. Smith tagged and center fielder Brady Clark's poor throw home was well up the first base line. Clark followed the poor throw by misplaying a long drive by Tulowitzki into a triple, but Peavy struck out Holliday to escape. Peavy caught a break in the seventh when Atkins lined the first pitch to deep left field. The drive appeared to clear the fence, possibly striking a chair and bouncing back onto the field, but Atkins was held to a double despite the protests of Colorado manager Clint Hurdle. Peavy departed after intentionally walking Brad Hawpe and Heath Bell struck out the next two batters. Bell fanned five over a season-high 2 2/3 innings. Fogg lasted four-plus frames, getting tagged for five runs and eight hits.