Rockies Single L.A. to Death

Bloop single? Got that. Line-drive single into the outfield? Got that. Infield single that rolls at a snail’s pace down the third-base line? Got that too.

James Baldwin kept on pitching, and the Colorado Rockies kept on getting singles, an outcome that would be comical if it were not so painful for the Dodgers. Baldwin gave up 13 hits--all singles--in a 5-3 loss to the Rockies on Wednesday.

The Dodgers lost their fourth consecutive home game and, for the second consecutive night, lost to the last-place team in the National League West. They dropped 51/2 games behind the first-place Arizona Diamondbacks--their deficit has not been larger since July 1--and dropped 11/2 games out of the NL wild-card lead.

‘I wouldn’t let it get me down knowing I’m within a game and half of playing baseball in October,’ Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said.

But the Dodgers have lost six of their past eight home games--against the Rockies, New York Mets and Montreal Expos, teams a combined 44 games out of first place. After winning three of four games at Atlanta over the weekend, catcher Paul Lo Duca said he sensed the Dodgers returned home and again lost their edge against a team they need to beat.

‘We need to play with a little more intensity,’ Lo Duca said. ‘In the first couple of innings, when they scored, guys got a little down. By the time we started scoring, it was a little too late.”

Say this about Baldwin: He threw strikes, and he kept the ball in the park. The Rockies got no extra-base hits off him. They got no walks off him. But, boy, they got him, one base at a time.

The Rockies got three singles in the first inning, five in the second, one in the third, three more in the fourth and another in the fifth. At one point, Baldwin had faced 11 batters and given up seven singles. In the fourth inning, when Baldwin had faced 22 batters and given up 12 singles, the crowd of 27,697 booed heartily.

Sometimes, they got him with line drives. But the Dodgers couldn’t stop thinking about the second inning, for instance, when the Rockies loaded the bases without hitting a ball out of the infield.

Said Colorado Manager Buddy Bell: ‘We had 13 hits and we only hit two or three of them hard.”

Said Baldwin: ‘Maybe I threw too many strikes and got punished for it. I’ve been hit hard before and given up a lot of hits. I’ve never been hit this soft and gotten beat.”

The Rockies scored all five runs off Baldwin, all within the first four innings. Baldwin tied a career high by giving up 13 hits.

And, of course, the Rockies got no hits in the final four innings, against relievers Luke Prokopec and Mike Trombley.

The Dodgers fielded a lineup in which the final four hitters all had batting averages under .235. Eric Karros (.233) hit sixth, followed by center fielder Marquis Grissom (.233) and shortstop Alex Cora (.233). The other center fielder, Tom Goodwin, is batting .230. Catcher Chad Kreuter, who will displace Karros from the lineup tonight, is batting .218.

The latest Dodger lineup, in which Adrian Beltre bats leadoff, features the regulars with the two highest on-base percentages--Gary Sheffield and Lo Duca--batting fourth and fifth, respectively. That creates RBI opportunities for the hitters that follow, with a glaring spotlight on the slumping Karros.

That made Wednesday a mildly encouraging night for the Dodgers, on that front at least. Karros doubled and singled, in the process recording his first multihit game in 19 days.

With Chan Ho Park pitching tonight, Kreuter will catch, Lo Duca will move to first base and Karros will rest. Tracy indicated his patience with Karros is not infinite but said, aside from the days Park pitches, he would stick with Karros regularly rather than play him for a day or two, then bench him for a day or two, then play him again.

‘It’s not going to get us the answer to our question: Is he going to break out or not?’ Tracy said. ‘That’s not conducive to getting an offensive player to try to break out of a slump.”

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