DENVER (AP) -- Jamey Carroll finished tying his shoes and looked

up at the crowd of cameras, notebooks and recorders inching toward

his face.

"Everybody's acting like I haven't done this in three years,"

he deadpanned as the reporters surrounding him broke into laughter.

Carroll ended the majors' second-longest active homerless streak

and Clint Barmes drove in four runs, leading the Colorado Rockies

to an 8-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night.

Carroll, in his first year with Colorado after being dealt from

Washington in the offseason, has been a steady player throughout

his 11-year career, filling in at three spots in the infield and

hitting .346 as a pinch hitter.

What he hasn't done is hit a lot of homers.

Before he curled a solo shot off Francisco Rosario just inside

the left-field foul pole in the sixth inning, Carroll had gone 663

at-bats without a homer -- the second-longest drought behind Jason

Kendall's 919. It was the first time Carroll got to circle the

bases since Aug. 1, 2003, when he hit one off Milwaukee's Wayne

Franklin at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

"It's been a while," said Carroll, who ended an 0-for-13 slump

with his third career homer. "Hopefully, it's not that long before

the next one."

Todd Helton and Garrett Atkins also homered, Barmes had a pair

of two-run doubles to end a 5-for-57 slump, and Colorado had 12

hits to win for the third time in nine games.

It was good night for a lot of Rockies, but the biggest surprise

was seeing Carroll trotting around the bases.

"The only other guy he's hit a home run off of in a long time

is me," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "We were surprised. We

told him 'you hit 'em and we'll count 'em. Now you're at one."'

Rockies starter Aaron Cook (5-3) had good bite on his sinker to

make up for his lack of command, getting 12 outs on groundballs in

5 1/3 innings to win his fourth straight decision. The right-hander

gave up seven hits and two runs, the ninth time in as many starts

this season he's allowed four runs or less.

"I think it (the sinker) was working, but I didn't hit my spots

with it," Cook said. "I was relying more on just my stuff tonight

than to be able to pitch and hit my spots where I wanted to. That

is what I've learned, that even when I'm not hitting spots I can

rely on my stuff enough to get me outs. And it worked most of the

time."

Toronto had won nine of its previous 14 games, in large part

because of solid pitching. The Blue Jays didn't get it this time.

Josh Towers (1-8) became the majors' first eight-game loser by

following up his best outing of the season -- two runs and five hits

in eight innings Sunday against Tampa Bay -- with one of his worst,

giving up five runs and eight hits in five innings.

The right-hander left a fastball up in the first inning that

Atkins hit out to left for a solo homer, then gave up a two-run

double in the fourth to Barmes.

Toronto scored twice in the fourth inning, but Helton hit his

third homer -- first since coming off the disabled list on May 5 --

off Towers in the bottom half, a two-run shot into Colorado's

bullpen in right-center that put the Rockies up 5-2.

Towers was lifted for a pinch hitter the next inning after

giving up four or more runs for the seventh time in nine starts.

"I think I was able to put the ball where I wanted to, but I

did get a couple of sliders out over the plate," Towers said.

"When I located pitches, they couldn't do anything with it."

At least he did something with his bat, leading off the fifth

inning with a single to right for his first hit in 12 career

at-bats and the first hit by a Blue Jays pitcher since Mark

Hendrickson homered against Montreal on June 21, 2003.

Reed Johnson followed with a broken-bat single to left, Vernon

Wells knocked in Toronto's first run with a sacrifice fly to

center, and Troy Glaus cut Colorado's lead to 3-2 with a

run-scoring double down the line in right.

But that was as close as the Blue Jays would get.

"We got back into it and gave it right back," Toronto manager

John Gibbon said. "We had the bases loaded three times and nothing

to show for it. They pitched better than us."Game notes
Glaus hit a foul ball into the upper deck in the second

inning that hit a fan in the back and caused him to drop his food

to the lower level, leading to laughter from the crowd. ...

Toronto's Lyle Overbay extended his hitting streak to seven games

with a single in the second inning.