(Sports Network) - It's hard to believe, but the defending National League- champion Colorado Rockies are in line for their first series sweep of the 2008 season. They take on the Cleveland Indians tonight in the finale of a three- game interleague set at Coors Field.
Colorado won the first three of a four-game series with Atlanta earlier this season, but the finale of that set was postponed due to snow. The Rockies then lost the make-up game by a 7-1 score on Monday, right before taking the first two contests versus the Tribe to improve to 2-1 on a seven-game homestand.
In Wednesdays 4-2 triumph over Cleveland, Omar Quintanilla had two RBI and Jeff Baker ended 2-for-4 with a homer and three runs scored for the NL West cellar-dwellers, who have ripped off four wins in five tries and 10 in the last 14 games.
Rockies starter Jeff Francis gave up two runs -- one earned -- and five hits in six-plus innings of work to collect the victory. Brian Fuentes tossed a scoreless ninth for his 12th save, as the Rockies pushed their home record over the .500 mark at 18-17.
The Rockies will send Jorge De La Rosa to the mound on Thursday, and he is 1-3 with a 6.89 earned run average through six starts this season. The southpaw is just 0-2 over his seven most recent trips to the mound and did not factor in a 2-0 win against the Chicago White Sox on Saturday. He hurled five shutout innings of one-hit ball versus Chicago in his fourth consecutive no-decision.
De La Rosa is 1-3 with a 7.67 ERA in six career starts against Cleveland, having played in the American League with Kansas City from 2006-07.
Cleveland is 0-2 so far on a six-game road trip and 13-21 as the guest this season. It has lost three of four games to fall 7 1/2 games behind the first- place White Sox in the AL Central, and Wednesday's defeat didn't help matters.
Casey Blake finished with two of the Tribes six hits and Jamey Carroll chipped in an RBI double in a losing cause.
Aaron Laffey was saddled with the loss after allowing three runs and eight hits through six innings.
Indians pitcher Jeremy Sowers, who hasn't won since late last May, will take the mound this evening. Sowers is 0-1 with a 7.23 ERA in four starts this season, having yielded three or more runs in each of his outings in 2008.
Sowers last pitched on Friday versus San Diego and did not factor in the Indians' 9-5 victory after allowing four runs and nine hits in 4 1/3 frames. He was reached for five runs in four innings of a 5-2 loss at Detroit his start before.
The left-hander's last win came on May 24, 2007 at Kansas City, when he tossed seven sparkling innings of one-run ball to back a 10-3 triumph. Sowers has never faced Colorado in his career.
Colorado is 6-2 versus the American League this season, while the Indians have won just two of eight games against the Senior Circuit. Cleveland is 104-97 all-time in interleague play, compared to the Rockies' 82-89 mark.
The all-time series between Cleveland and Colorado is tied at 7-7.
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