Dodgers get pounded by Rockies, 12-2

The day after Joe Torre said he wouldn’t return as Dodgers manager next season, Torre walked into the dugout at Dodger Stadium for his pregame meeting with the media and one reporter cracked: “You’re still here, huh?”

Torre laughed, then joined the fun by saying his wife also had kiddingly asked him, “You change your mind?”

Torre plans to step aside, and Dodgers batting coach Don Mattingly will succeed him, partly because the 70-year-old Torre grew frustrated with the team’s lackluster play and because he wants to do something else involving baseball.

But in the meantime there’s the matter of finishing out this season and, on Saturday, that meant feeling the brunt of the Colorado Rockies’ one-man wrecking crew of late, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki.

The former Long Beach State player drilled a pair of two-run home runs off Dodgers starter John Ely, Melvin Mora added a grand slam against reliever Jeff Weaver and Colorado starter Jhoulys Chacin pitched eight scoreless innings as the Rockies routed the Dodgers, 12-2.

Tulowitzki has hit 14 home runs in his last 15 games, tying the modern-day record set by Albert Belle in 1995 and Barry Bonds in 2001, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“What it came down to today was not getting [my] off-speed over for strikes,” Ely said. “The change-up, which is my go-to off-speed pitch, just wasn’t there, it was real sporadic.”

It was Colorado’s second win over the Dodgers in two days, keeping the Rockies in a close race for the National League West lead with San Diego and San Francisco.

Russ Mitchell helped the Dodgers avoid a shutout with a two-run homer in the ninth inning off reliever Franklin Morales, and catcher A.J. Ellis had three hits for the second consecutive day.

But the Dodgers have lost four consecutive games, 13 of their last 17 and they dropped to five games below .500 for the first time since May 4. There are 13 games left in the regular season.

Elaborating on his decision to step down as manager, Torre said “there was a lot of thought involved. I pretty much was leaning this way for a while, and I was just holding out in case I started changing my mind.”

He didn’t. But Torre insisted that he wasn’t swayed by the highly publicized divorce trial of Frank and Jamie McCourt and its attendant prospect of limiting the Dodgers’ ability to pay for top-ranked players.

“It didn’t affect me at all,” Torre said. “As a manager, you’re buried in your players and what you’re doing.

“There are always players out there that you want” to possibly obtain, he said. “The job of the manager is to do the best he can with the players he has. If you start doing all that supposing and wishing and all that stuff, you’re really cheating yourself.”

As for the Dodgers’ current players, “if it affected them, that’s really their fault because it’s something you can’t control,” Torre added.

Asked what he’ll do next, Torre said “I really don’t know.”

“I think I’ll be getting offers to do some broadcasting; I’m not sure I want to do that,” he said. But a front-office job, particularly with General Manager Ned Colletti, “that would interest me,” Torre said. “I still want to be involved in baseball … but I don’t necessarily want to do it for 162 games.”

Dotel changes dugouts

Before the game, the Dodgers traded reliever Octavio Dotel to the Rockies for a player to be named.

The Dodgers had acquired the right-hander from the Pittsburgh Pirates shortly before the July 31 non-waiver trading deadline for pitcher James McDonald and minor league outfielder Andrew Lambo.

A closer for the Pirates this season, Dotel, 36, appeared in 19 games for the Dodgers, with a 1-1 record, one save and a 3.38 earned-run average.

james.peltz@latimes.com