Rockies avalanche: Braves blow 10-1 lead in 12-10 loss

DENVER -- Before the Braves' collapse became epic Wednesday, before they saw a 10-1 lead turn into a stunning 12-10 loss against Colorado, there was the fifth-inning snowball that seeded an avalanche.

Jair Jurrjens walked Colorado rookie reliever Matt Reynolds with one out in the fifth. Reynolds, in his first major league plate appearance, stood with a bat on his shoulder for six pitches before jogging to first base.

The Braves had a 10-2 lead at the time. The next three batters produced a single, a two-RBI triple by Milton High graduate Dexter Fowler (who scored on Alex Gonzalez's relay error on the play) and a double.

What had seemed a relatively benign mistake a few moments earlier quickly become something more. It was the beginning of the end for the Braves, though that wouldn't be fully apparent until their bullpen failed to stop the bleeding.

"He walked the pitcher, and it led to four runs -- that was the turning point of the ballgame," said manager Bobby Cox, whose Braves helped stoke the Rockies' comeback with bad pitches and shaky defensive plays during a stunning meltdown.

The Rockies scored three runs in the fifth inning and three in the sixth. They completed their franchise-best comeback with four more runs in the eighth inning against Jonny Venters (4-2) and Kyle Farnsworth.

It was the Braves' first three-game losing skid in two months and the first time they have been swept at Colorado in a completed series of three games or more. The Braves maintained their 2 1/2-game lead in the National League East, however, as Philadelphia lost to Houston 3-2.

"It's my fault that we lost, and that's it," said Jurrjens, who tried to shoulder all the blame on a day when plenty of it belonged to several others.

This was not the work of one man, or a few. This was a widespread breakdown.

The Braves looked like the first-place team they are while building a 10-1 lead through three innings, getting at least one hit from everyone in their lineup, including Jurrjens.

All nine batters had an extra-base hit after four innings. The Braves had a season-high 10 extra-base hits, including a home run by Omar Infante and a double and a triple by Jason Heyward.

Then, it all came undone.

"I don't know what to say, man," Braves third baseman Martin Prado said. "What am I going to say? It's unbelievable. I mean, it seems like every single ball they hit, they found a hole or they hit it hard somewhere. It was unbelievable.

"It's got to be one of the hardest losses we've had."

The Braves made two errors, failed to turn a potential double play in the eighth inning after a bad throw by second baseman Infante, and watched relievers Peter Moylan, Venters and Farnsworth fail to quell flames that raged around Jurrjens in the fifth and again in the sixth.

Cox brought Jurrjens back in the sixth after a rough fifth inning, hoping he could regain the rhythm he had early. That didn't happen.

Jurrjens was charged with nine hits, seven runs and two walks in 5 1/3 innings, his last run scoring on Ryan Spilborghs' two-run double in the sixth off Moylan. Moylan faced two batters and retired neither.

"You make a bad pitch, and the outfield is so big here," said Cox, who said Coors Field provided the perfect stage for the Rockies' comeback. "They hit every gap imaginable today. It's not the first time it's happened in this ballpark. You have a big lead, and the other team comes back.

"We've done it ourselves. It's not pretty to see. We couldn't hold them. It's one of the few times our bullpen couldn't hold somebody."

Spilborghs' double trimmed the lead to 10-8, and the Rockies scored their remaining four runs in the eighth inning against Venters and Farnsworth.

The Braves still led 10-8 when the Rockies had runners at first and second with one out in the eighth, and Venters pitching. Eric Young Jr. hit a grounder to Infante, whose throw to second pulled shortstop Alex Gonzalez off the base and eliminated the possibility of a double play.

"He didn't make a good throw," Gonzalez said. "[The runner] didn't take me out. He threw on the [other side] of the bag, and I had to go get it."