Dodgers experience night of mile-high misery
Reporting from Denver -- This was just one of those nights. You could tell right away.
With his third pitch, Hiroki Kuroda hit a batter. The catcher threw the ball back to Kuroda, who missed it.
It was that kind of evening for the Dodgers, best forgotten. The Colorado Rockies thumped them, 11-3, on a blustery night that evoked memories of San Francisco’s Candlestick Park.
“This was a game we just chalk up and say, ‘See you tomorrow,’” Dodgers Manager Joe Torre said.
In the second inning, the umpires had to call time out to remove a stray piece of blowing paper that had landed in front of home plate. As gusts swirled to 27 mph, ushers cleared wrappers from the warning track between innings.
And, before the first inning ended, a bolt of lightning appeared in the distance, beyond left field.
There was more suspense in the elements than in the game, with the Rockies amassing an 8-0 lead after five innings.
The wind was all but gone by the end of the game, and so were the Dodgers. In their 22 losses this season, they have given up 10 or more runs seven times.
The Dodgers lost for the fourth time in six games. The Rockies won for the seventh time in nine games.
And, if the Rockies win today, they would have the same record as the Dodgers, albeit in a division in which the top four teams all are within three games of first place. The San Diego Padres lead the Dodgers by two games, the San Francisco Giants by 21/2 and the Rockies by three.
Kuroda was not good Saturday, not at all. He faced 24 batters, with 13 reaching base. He gave up seven runs and 10 hits, tying his United States career high in both categories.
“Overall, I didn’t really have much of anything,” Kuroda said through an interpreter. “My control wasn’t there, and my breaking ball wasn’t moving.”
It did not help, he said, that a spike on his right shoe caught in the dirt while he pitched to the first batter. He was not in pain, he said, but it might have had “a little bit of influence” in his inability to pitch to the corners. “I ended up throwing right down the middle to get a strike,” he said.
The defense behind Kuroda, well, that was not good either. In the first inning, with Troy Tulowitzki up with two on and none out, left fielder Manny Ramirez ran a long way to try to catch a foul fly, but the ball glanced off his glove. Ramirez was not charged with an error, but Tulowitzki walked, and the Rockies converted the bases-loaded, none-out opportunity into a three-run inning.
With two out and none on in the third inning, shortstop Rafael Furcal committed an error, his fourth in four games at the position since coming off the disabled list. The Rockies parlayed that chance into two more runs.
Furcal also had three hits. He had gone one for 13 since the Dodgers activated him Tuesday.
Kuroda never has beaten the Rockies, with an 0-3 record and a 7.57 earned-run average in five starts. This was his first really poor start this season, after nine mostly good ones, and Torre was more than willing to cut him a little slack.
“You start every five or six days all year long,” Torre said, “and you’ll run into some clunkers.”
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