Jimenez pitches first Rockies no-hitter

ATLANTA - Ubaldo Jimenez pitched the first no-hitter in the Colorado Rockies' 18-year history, dominating the Atlanta Braves in a 4-0 victory last night.

Jimenez (3-0) walked six - all in the first five innings. He was helped by Dexter Fowler's diving catch in left-centerfield in the seventh inning.

Jimenez was at his best in the final innings, reaching the high 90s with his fastball right up until the final batter.

In the ninth, Martin Prado popped out to second baseman Clint Barmes, Chipper Jones hit a fly ball to leftfield and Brian McCann grounded out to Barmes on Jimenez's 128th pitch to end the game.

But the heavy workload is nothing new for the Dominican righthander. He had at least 100 pitches in 29 of his 33 starts last year and finished with 3,570 total, second-most in the NL behind St. Louis' Adam Wainwright (3,614).

"Probably after the seventh inning, I was like 'Whoa, there's only two innings left. I have a chance to do this,' " Jimenez said.

The 26-year-old righthander struck out seven and had an RBI single in the fourth inning.

Jimenez walked leadoff batter Melky Cabrera in the third. Kenshin Kawakami bounced his attempted sacrifice bunt to Jimenez, who threw out Cabrera at second base. Kawakami was safe at first and moved to second with two outs on Prado's second walk. But with Chipper Jones at the plate, Kawakami was picked off second base by catcher Miguel Olivo to end the inning.

Colorado got its first run on Troy Tulowitzki's sacrifice fly in the first inning, scoring Carlos Gonzalez, who had led off with a double and advanced to third base on Fowler's groundout to second.

The Rockies tacked on the other three runs in the fourth inning. Brad Hawpe, who was 3-for-4 and is now hitting .393, led off with a single to left-center. With one out, Ian Stewart singled to left center, advancing Hawpe to second.

Then with two outs, Jimenez singled to center, scoring Hawpe and Jimenez took second on the throw home. Gonzalez followed with his second double of the game, scoring both runners for a 4-0 lead.