Jimenez wins 19th for Rockies, beating LA 7-5 after Dodgers manager Torre announces retirement

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Colorado’s Jimenez beats Dodgers for 19th win

LOS ANGELES — Troy Tulowitzki hit a two-run shot Friday night for his 12th homer in September, powering Ubaldo Jimenez to his 19th victory and leading the surging Colorado Rockies to a 7-5 victory over the Dodgers hours after Los Angeles manager Joe Torre said he would retire at the end of the season.

Jimenez (19-6) tied Roy Halladay and CC Sabathia for the major league lead in wins as Colorado closed within 1½ games of NL West-leading San Francisco, which lost 3-0 to Milwaukee.

Torre ended weeks of speculation about his status for next season prior to the game, announcing he would end his three-year stint with the Dodgers. His replacement will be hitting coach Don Mattingly, whom the 70-year-old Torre had as his bench coach in New York before bringing him out west after 12 seasons as Yankees manager.

Jimenez allowed four runs and six hits over 6 1-3 innings. The right-hander was 1-4 in his previous seven starts.

Todd Helton had four hits for Colorado, including a run-scoring single. His 40 homers and 126 career RBIs against the Dodgers are the most he’s had against any team.

The Rockies, vying for their first division title in the franchise’s 18-year history, have 15 games left, including a three-game set against the Giants at Coors Field on the next-to-last weekend of the regular season. They also trail San Diego by a game in the crowded NL West.

Colorado reliever Matt Belisle, who gave up a grand slam to Casey Blake on Aug. 27 in the Dodgers’ 6-2 win over Jimenez, was brought in to face the third baseman with the bases loaded in the seventh and struck him out before retiring Matt Kemp on a groundout to preserve a 7-4 lead.

Huston Street, the fifth Rockies pitcher, got three outs for his 20th save in 23 chances despite giving up an RBI single to Blake.

Hiroki Kuroda (10-13) yielded five runs, three earned, and seven hits over six innings. The right-hander is 0-4 with a 6.25 ERA in seven career starts against the Rockies.

The Dodgers were trying to improve to 3-0 against Jimenez this season, but Tulowitzki put them in a hole with his 24th homer after Eric Young reached on an error by shortstop Rafael Furcal to begin the game. Tulowitzki is batting .377 over his last 15 games with 29 RBIs — seven of them in Wednesday’s 9-6 win over the Padres, when he hit a pair of three-run homers.

The Rockies broke a 2-2 tie in the fourth with consecutive RBI singles by Melvin Mora, Seth Smith and Miguel Olivo. They tacked on two more in the seventh on RBI singles by Helton and Mora against former closer Jonathan Broxton.

The Dodgers (72-76) need to win at least nine more games to avoid finishing under .500 for the second time in the last 12 years. The only other time they did during that stretch was 2005 — under current Rockies manager Jim Tracy (71-91).

NOTES: Torre and Mattingly both acknowledged the standing ovation they received from the crowd of 38,449 after the third inning. … Torre has a 2,318-1,991 regular-season record in 29 major league seasons. … Jimenez has given up only eight homers this season, the fewest by any of the 29 NL pitchers who have made at least 29 starts. He has allowed an average of 0.51 homers per nine innings since giving up Barry Bonds 762nd and final homer on Sept. 5, 2007. … Kemp struck out in the sixth inning, breaking the single-season Dodgers franchise record of 153 that he set in 2008.