Jeff Francis of North Delta, B.C., posted his first-ever playoff victory for the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday afternoon.
Francis pitched six solid innings as the Rockies clipped the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2 in the opener of their National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park.
Francis, a stylish southpaw who went 17-9 during the regular season, permitted two runs on four hits and two walks with eight strikeouts in posting the win.
Jeff Francis delivers a pitch in Wednesday's 4-2 Rockies victory.
(Matt Rourke/Associated Press)
"He threw a lot of strikes early, and we were missing pitches and just could not square up," Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. "Take your hat off to him."
"Some of the hitters may have been uptight," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "But Francis was way better than the other times I have seen him."
Francis was raked for 14 runs and 20 hits in 8 1/3 innings in two previous starts versus the Phillies.
"I'm always aware of my success or non-success I have against teams," he said. "Today, my execution was better.
"You go out thinking about it. But I was confident knowing, when I was facing them earlier this year, I wasn't executing that well."
The Phillies and Rockies have the league's most prolific offences, yet they combined for just six runs and 10 hits in Game 1.
"Any time you expect a slugfest, you get a pitching duel," Rockies left-fielder Matt Holliday said.
Game 2 of the best-of-five series goes Thursday (3 p.m. ET).
The Rockies took a 3-0 lead in the second inning, but were held hitless until Holliday whacked a solo home run to left-centre field off reliever Tom Gordon in the eighth inning.
Garrett Atkins, Yorvit Torrealba and Troy Tulowitzki had runs batted in for the Rockies (90-73), whose only other post-season appearance was a four-game series loss to the Atlanta Braves in 1995.
Closer Manny Corpas recorded the final three outs to earn the save.
"I told a couple of the boys, 'It's my day today,'" he said.
Colorado clinched the wild card by winning a sudden-death playoff over the San Diego Padres, scoring three runs in the bottom of the 13th inning for a 9-8 victory.
"We had been playing playoff baseball the last two weeks, do or die," Rockies first baseman Todd Helton said.
Back-to-back homers
Aaron Rowand and Pat Burrell hit consecutive home runs for the Phillies (89-73), who defeated the Washington Nationals 6-1 in their regular-season finale to claim the NL East Division by one game over the New York Mets.
Philadelphia last reached the playoffs in 1993, when they lost the World Series in six games to the Toronto Blue Jays.
Philadelphia left-hander Cole Hamels limited the Rockies to just three hits over 6 2/3 innings, walking four and striking out seven.
Hamels (15-5) was nicked for three runs in the second inning, but settled down and retired 13 straight batters before walking Ryan Spilborghs in the seventh.
"You want to succeed in the spotlight," Hamels said. "Nothing can prepare you for what this situation is like."
Helton tripled off Hamel to open the second inning and scored on Atkins's RBI double.
One out later, Spilborghs walked to put two runners aboard for Torrealba, who singled in Atkins to make it 2-0.
Francis advanced the runners with a sacrifice bunt and Kazuo Matsui walked to loaded the bases for Tulowitzski, who walked to force a third run.
It remained 3-0 until the fifth inning, when Francis served up back-to-back homers to Rowand and Burrell, one to right-centre field and the other to left.
Both homers came on 2-1 pitches.
With files from the Associated Press
