Tulowitzki leaves with leg injury, Rockies fall to Braves

The Colorado Rockies, playing without Carlos Gonzalez, lost Troy Tulowitzki in the fourth inning due to right quadriceps tightness and managed just four hits while losing 4-1 to the Atlanta Braves.

Ubaldo Jimenez, returning to the Turner Field mound for the first time since he threw a no-hitter there April 17, 2010, retired the first two batters he faced before Brian McCann singled and rookie Freddie Freeman homered, which turned out to be all the support Tommy Hanson would need.

Jimenez tied a franchise record with five consecutive strikeouts, starting with Brooks Conrad with one out in the second. And Jimenez struck out a season-high nine, but the strikeouts and deep counts led to Jimenez throwing 117 pitches and leaving after 5 1/3 innings when the Braves scored a tainted run.

McCann led off the sixth with a single. After Freeman struck out, Jason Heyward hit a drive to deep right-center. Ryan Spilborghs, playing center field in Gonzalez’s absence, made a leaping attempt for a ball Gonzalez might very well have caught. Right fielder Seth Smith fielded the ball off the wall and made a good throw to Jonathan Herrera, who had replaced Tulowitzki.

Herrera dropped the ball and McCann, who was going to be easily thrown out, scored to make it 3-1. Freeman homered off Matt Reynolds on a 1-2 leading off the eighth for the first multi-homer game of his career, and Craig Kimbrel retired the side in order for his 25th save.

Tulowitzki grounded into a double play to end the fourth and shook his right leg several times and left favoring his leg. He missed 46 games in 2008 with a torn tendon in his left quadriceps.

The Rockies scored their run in the fourth when Mark Ellis, who was hitless for the first time in four games with the Rockies, led off with a walk and stole second. He scored on Todd Helton‘s single, one of two at-bats for the Rockies with a runner in scoring position. The other came in the seventh when Herrera singled with two out and Smith doubled, but Hanson struck out Ty Wigginton, the last batter he faced.

Hanson, who was left off the NL All-Star team, is 10-4 with a 2.52 ERA. Jimenez is 3-8 and his ERA rose slightly to 4.39. In his past seven starts, Jimenez is 3-2 with a 2.56 ERA.

Other highlights:
_ Cole Garner, who was recalled from Triple-A Colorado Rockies, made his major league debut and flied to right in the eighth against left-hander Jonny Venters.
_ In Gonzalez’s absence, Charlie Blackmon hit leadoff for the first time in his major league career. He went 0-for-4 but had a bunt single taken away on a good play by third baseman Brooks Conrad to open the fourth and made the final out in the eighth when left fielder Nate McLouth, a center fielder by trade, made a running catch going straight back on a ball that would have gone over the head of plenty of left fielders.
_ Reynolds has allowed three homers in 28 innings, all on the road. The others were hit by switch-hitter Mark Teixeira of the Yankees on June 26 and Juan Miranda of the Diamondbacks, like Freeman a left-handed hitter, on May 4.