Walker Lifts Rockies By Pirates

May 1, 1999 / 4:19 AM EDT / CBS/AP

Somebody is going to get Larry Walker out soon. On this night, it certainly wasn't going to be Pete Schourek.

Walker didn't leave his power stroke back in St. Louis, hitting a pair of two-run home runs, and Vinny Castilla added two solo shots Friday night to lead the Colorado Rockies over the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-2.

Walker, homerless for three weeks before hitting three Wednesday against the Cardinals, was 2-for-3 with four RBIs giving him three homers and a pair of club RBI records: 15 in three games and 17 in four.

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"There are times when the ball looks like a grapefruit, and that's the way it is right now," said Walker, who is hitting .348. "I've had three days where I'm swinging hot. I need to keep doing it for the rest of the season, not just three days."

Not that anyone expects Walker to keep driving in runs at this rate.

"I don't think Hack Wilson has to worry," Walker said, referring to Wilson's single-season record of 190 RBIs.

Until his breakout three-homer, eight-RBI game against the Cardinals, Walker had no homers and five RBIs in eight games after missing the first seven games with a strained rib cage muscle.

"I'm getting some timing back, I had no timing a week ago," Walker said. "You can't out and just jump back into it. I've started to get it back."

Walker's homers came in his first two at-bats against Schourek (1-2), who also allowed two homers to Mark McGwire on April 13 the last two hit by McGwire.

Of course, homering off Schourek is nothing new for Walker, who is 12-for-27 (.444) with five homers and nine RBIs against the left-hander.

"Given our history, he was the last guy I wanted to face," Schourek said. "But I've got to try to get him out of that (in the first inning). But he jumped on the first pitch."

Walked followed Darryl Hamilton's single with first-pitch shot off the auxiliary scoreboard in right field in the first. In the third, Walker again followed a Hamilton single by hitting a curve ball into the covered-up center field seats.

"My breaking ball was just rolling up there, and I just wasn't getting ahead of hitters," Schourek said.

Walker jumped his batting average against left-handers to .563 9-of-16. He also is 14-for-26 (.538) with runners on base despite striking out with Mike Lansing on base in the fifth.

Castilla added a solo shot in the fourth off Schourek, whose ERA climbed from 3.86 to 5.04 as he allowed five runs and five hits in four innings. Schourek has yielded six homers in 25 innings. Castilla also homered, his fourth of the season, off Rich Loiselle in the ninth.

The Pirates lost their third straight, sixth in seven games and sixth in a row at home.

Castilla's first homer made it 5-0, and Rockies starter Pedro Astacio (1-3) made it stand up with 7 2-3 effective innings for his first victory in seven appearances since beating San Diego on Sept. 18.

Astacio settled down after giving up 12 earned runs in 7 1-3 innings in losses to the Braves and Giants, striking out eight and walking three in the best of his five starts this season.

"That's the difference when you work ahead of the hitters instead of working behind all the time," Astacio said. "It's different when they have to swing at the pitch you want."

Astacio got himself out of a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the first inning as Kevin Young lined into a double play and Brant Brown struck out looking.

"We caught a break, no question, because Kevin hit a rocket," Rockies manager Jim Leyland said. "Pedro caught a break and really settled in."

Astacio also displayed damage control ability in the sixth, getting rookie Warren Morris to ground out with the bases loaded and a run in on Mike Benjamin's pinch-hit single.

Chuck McElroy struck out Morris with the bases loaded to end the eighth, as Morris, a .227 hitter, stranded seven runners in his final three at-bats.

Notes: Pirates shortstop Pat Meares agreed to a $15 million, four-year contract extension. ... The Rockies have won three straight since losing four in a row. ... Benjamin had two hits after replacing third baseman Ed Sprague and is 13-for-23 (.565) since starting 1-for-26. Sprague left with a strained right hamstring and will be re-examined Saturday. .... Until Al Martin doubled in the fourth, 25 of the Pirates' previous 26 hits were singles. ... Dante Bichette held the Rockies' records with 13 RBIs in three games and 14 in four. ... After the game, the Pirates optioned rookie Jason Phillips to rookie league Bradenton to become a starter and recalled right-hander Marc Wilkins from a rehabilitation assignment at Triple-A Nashville.