By ARNIE STAPLETON
AP Sports Writer

DENVER(AP) -- Colorado Rockies manager Jim Tracy settled into his
chair for his post-game news conference and took a deep breath.

"That was interesting," he declared.

From start to finish, it was a wild, wacky night at Coors Field.

Brad Hawpe homered for the first time since Aug. 29 and the
Rockies beat San Diego 11-10 on Tuesday night despite a rare
rough outing from lefty Jorge De La Rosa and a four-run
ninth-inning rally by the Padres.

After allowing two bloop singles that plated four runs and putt
the tying run at third base and the go-ahead run at first,
Franklin Morales secured his seventh save in eight chances when
pinch-hitter Nick Hundley hit an absolute rope that appeared to
be heading over left fielder Seth Smith's head before settling
into his glove.

"Nick hit that ball right on the screws," Padres manager Bud
Black said. "And it was right at him."

Game over.

"That's baseball, we got lucky," said Rockies outfielder Carlos
Gonzalez. "Sometimes you hit bloops and they fall in and
sometimes you hit it as well as you can and it's an out."

Tracy, for one, thought the Padres had just gone ahead when the
ball came smoking off Hundley's bat.

"You can't square a ball much better than that, I can promise
you that," Tracy said. "I saw Seth either freeze or just take a
tiny step forward and the way that ball was hit and came off the
bat, I thought it maybe had a chance of going over his head. I
really did. I'm glad it didn't."

If the ball sails over Smith's head as just about everybody left
in the ballpark envisioned, the Padres would have grabbed the
lead.

"I thought it might have a chance to get past him," Hundley
said. "I looked for (speedy pinch-runner) Luis Durango when the
ball was caught and he was rounding third. He would have scored.
He can score from first base on a single."

The Rockies increased their NL lead in the NL wild-card race to
five games over San Francisco and Atlanta.

And they did it in frantic fashion.

The Rockies scored every way imaginable: on an inside-the-park
homer by Clint Barmes, a balk and twice on wild pitches, and
they needed every bit of that wacky production to go with their
routine run-scoring hits, including Hawpe's opposite-field shot
that barely cleared the wall.

In a cold, steady drizzle, Morales came on in the ninth with two
outs and the bases loaded courtesy of Juan Rincon's wildness,
trying to protect an 11-6 lead. He surrendered a two-run single
to Adrian Gonzalez, walked Chase Headley and gave up a two-run
single to Oscar Salazar to make it 11-10.

"Franklin Morales really shouldn't have had to pitch tonight,"
Tracy insisted.

After securing the save, Morales learned Huston Street was going
to reclaim the closer role after retiring the only two batters
he faced in his first appearance since returning from biceps
tendinitis.

"When I handed (Tracy) the ball, he said, 'You convinced me,"'
Street recounted.

While Morales hung his head in the clubhouse after the close
call, Street walked past and told him, "We won, that's all that
matters. That's all that matters."

Morales shook his head in agreement.

Troy Tulowitzki's RBI single off Cesar Ramos (0-1) broke a 6-6
tie in the fourth and made a winner of Matt Belisle (2-1), the
first of seven relievers.

Belisle allowed two hits in three scoreless innings as the
Rockies began a nine-game homestand with their eighth straight
win at Coors Field, where they're 39-14 since Tracy took over as
manager in late May.

De La Rosa was tagged for six runs on six hits and three walks
in just 2 1-3 innings. It was a stunningly poor performance by
the left-hander who leads the majors with 15 wins since June 1
and who had allowed just three earned runs in 26 innings this
month, compiling a 1.04 ERA while going 3-0.

The Padres loaded the bases off De La Rosa in the third on two
walks and a single by Adrian Gonzalez before Edgar Gonzalez
tripled them all home, then scored on Henry Blanco's single.

That was it for De La Rosa, who was replaced by Belisle. The
Rockies quickly got De La Rosa off the hook for the loss on
Barmes' RBI single in the bottom of the inning.

After Tulowitzki's single broke the tie, the Rockies made it 8-6
in the sixth inning when Dexter Fowler scored from third on Luis
Perdomo's wild pitch.

An inning later, Barmes hit his 23rd homer. Right fielder Edgar
Gonzalez dived for the ball and barely missed it, rolling over
in pain as Barmes circled the bases behind Ian Stewart, who had
walked, with his second career inside-the-park homer.

Notes: Gonzalez's left shoulder popped out but popped right back
in. He said he's sore but will be OK in a couple of days. ...
Rockies LF Carlos Gonzalez strained his left hamstring leading
off the bottom of the first with a triple. He was lifted an
inning later as a precaution. ... Mujica allowed six runs on
eight hits in 2 2-3 innings. ... Barmes' other inside-the-park
home run came on May 8, 2005, at Florida.