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Colvin singles to put Rockies on the board

DENVER -- A sick Rockies right-handed pitcher Jeremy Guthrie was the perfect cure for the Padres' ailing offense.

A Padres club that entered Monday night with the second-lowest team batting average in the National League pounded out a season-high 14 hits and scored six runs off Guthrie, and sent the Rockies to a 7-1 defeat at Coors Field in front of 21,547.

Guthrie (1-1) was battling a sore throat that's believed to be a milder version of the illness that has sidelined left fielder Carlos Gonzalez the last three games. Guthrie gave up doubles to four of the first eight batters and trailed, 3-0, in the second, but found a way to work seven innings to rest an overworked bullpen. It was just the fourth time in 10 games a Rockies starter has lasted more than five innings.

Afterward, he needed rest, not to mention medicine.

"It's been going around a little bit, but I was hoping to start a little bit better than I did," Guthrie said.

Will Venable, Chase Headley (who had three doubles) and Nick Hundley doubled in the two-run first. Andy Parrino opened the second with a double and later scored. Jason Bartlett's double put men at second and third in a two-run fourth that featured shortstop Troy Tulowitzki's fourth error of the season -- two fewer than he committed in 140 defensive appearances last season while earning his second straight Rawlings Gold Glove Award.

Headley's third double set up a seventh-inning run.

"A couple of elevated fastballs and some elevated changeups as well," Guthrie said. "They put some good swings on some bad pitches."

Still, Guthrie mixed pitches better as the game progressed and helped bullpen members such as Esmil Rogers, Josh Roenicke and Matt Belisle have a night's rest.

"Even though he was under the weather, beyond the second inning, he settled in and pitched pretty well," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said. "The problem in the first two innings was the ball was up, and they hit it.

"I want him to pick up where he left off, and give a chance for the medicine he's taking to take hold and get him back healthy."

Guthrie's effort wasn't good enough to prevent the Rockies (4-6) from falling to 3-4 with two games left on the first homestand of the season. But that was the best the Rockies could hold onto after running into the Padres and left-handed starter Cory Luebke (1-1), which turns out to be a dangerous combination at Coors.

The Padres have won seven of their last 10 games at Coors since the start of last season.

"I didn't know that," Hundley said. "I know it's a really quality team we're playing. They have a great lineup and young arms that come out and have really good stuff. If we can put it together like that consistently, we'll be where we want to be."

Luebke held the Rockies to one run and six hits in seven innings. In seven games and three starts at Coors in his career, Luebke is 2-0 with a 2.59 ERA, and has held the Rockies to a .200 batting average (17-for-85).

The early lead helped.

"I felt all right tonight," Luebke said. "The offense did a good job of setting the tone early. They just went out and took a little pressure off and I tried to get some outs."

The Rockies' only run off him came on Tyler Colvin's second-inning RBI single behind Michael Cuddyer's double.

"He was hitting his spots, mixing that cutter-slider he has, the hard one," Colvin said. "He kept coming after us that way and kept us off-balance and getting outs."

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