DENVER – Troy Tulowitzki showed why he is headed to another All-Star Game.
Tulowitzki homered a day after being named to his fifth NL squad, Charlie Blackmon had three hits and drove in four runs and the Colorado Rockies beat the Atlanta Braves 11-3 on Sunday to complete a four-game sweep.
Drew Stubbs also went deep for the Rockies, who took four from Atlanta for the first time in team history.
“To end the first half like this proves that the guys embrace the fact they take the All-Star break to the last out,” manager Walt Weiss said.
Tulowitzki was chosen as an injury replacement for the National League on Saturday, right after his 21-game hitting streak ended. He started another one with a three-run homer in the sixth off reliever Dave Carpenter that gave Colorado an 8-3 lead.
“I missed some pitches earlier in the game but to come up with a big home run to make the lead a little bigger was nice,” Tulowitzki said.
Fellow All-Star DJ LeMahieu had two hits to help the Rockies end the first half of the season on a strong note. Colorado has won four in a row for the third time this season.
“I don’t think we’ve gone on quite a streak,” Tulowitzki said. “Hopefully this is the start of something.”
Blackmon did his damage against Atlanta starter Alex Wood (6-6). His two-run single in the second gave Colorado a 3-0 lead and his second two-run single came two batters before Tulowitzki’s 10th home run.
Tulowitzki has reached base in 38 consecutive games, tied for fourth in franchise history. He is hitting .364 since May 29 and has at least one hit in 34 of his last 36 games.
Wood started Sunday after being limited to two pitches in the series opener on Thursday. A rain delay in the bottom of the first lasted 2 hours, 6 minutes and ended his outing early.
“I really thought I threw pretty decent. I felt good,” Wood said. “I just had really one big mistake, that curveball to Blackmon that I hung there in my last inning.”
Carpenter, who made his Braves debut on Tuesday, allowed a two-run homer to Stubbs in the seventh, his fifth on the season.
The Braves tried to avoid their first four-game sweep of the season with a rally in the top of the sixth. Kelly Johnson and A.J. Pierzynski had RBI singles and Jonny Gomes tied it at 3 with a ground-rule double to right off Chad Bettis.
Bettis (5-4) avoided further damage by fanning Wood and getting Jace Peterson to ground into a forceout.
“It’s huge for me,” Bettis said. “I wanted that. It’s not something I wanted to hand over.”
Eury Perez had three hits for Atlanta, which has lost five straight and fell seven games behind Washington in the NL East. The Braves (42-47) are five games behind the Mets for the second wild card and could become sellers at the July 31 trade deadline.
“We’ll see what happens,” manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “We have not spoken as a front office and coaching staff about moving people or dumping people.”
