Dodgers Stuck in Neutral

Tight National League playoff races, a long trip in the final month of the regular season and still stuck behind the lead packs.

That’s what the Dodgers faced Tuesday night in the opener of a trip that started badly for them with a 5-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies before 30,455 at Coors Field--the smallest crowd in the ballpark’s seven-year history.

Colorado left-hander Denny Neagle (9-7) limited the Dodgers to six hits and was charged with two runs in six-plus innings--and the bullpen was even better.

Justin Speier worked two perfect innings and closer Jay Powell retired the Dodgers in order for his seventh save.

“The key to the game tonight was the fact that we didn’t hit enough to win,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “That’s all it boils down to. You would expect to score more than two runs in a game you play in at Coors Field.”

The last-place Rockies (61-76) continued to play the role of spoiler in the West, taking a 4-0 lead after the second inning against starter James Baldwin (2-3) en route to their third victory in the last four games against the third-place Dodgers (75-63).

The Dodgers are three games behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West and two games behind the Chicago Cubs in the wild-card race.

Baldwin struggled in his second consecutive shaky outing, giving up seven hits and five runs in six innings as the Dodgers did not start the way they had hoped on a 12-game, 14-day trip.

Baldwin gave up only one home run--a leadoff shot to impressive rookie infielder Juan Uribe in the second--but was out of sync early.

“No excuses,” Baldwin said. “I gave up five runs. The bottom line is I didn’t give my team a chance to win the ballgame. I take total responsibility. You still have to go out there and compete.”

The right-hander eventually got into a groove and pitched better than he did in giving up 13 hits in his last outing, but it didn’t matter because Neagle, Speier and Powell set the tone.

The Dodgers got only six hits at baseball’s top launching pad, acknowledging better performances had better occur quickly if they still hope to be in contention when they return to Chavez Ravine.

“This is going to make or break our season--bottom line,” catcher Paul Lo Duca said. “We’ve got to stay within striking distance on this road trip or ... we just have to do it. We’ve come this far and this trip is huge for us.

“It would have been nice to come out and swing the bats, but we didn’t. We just didn’t generate enough. There was one inning where we generated something, but that’s not going to get it done here.”

The Dodgers loaded the bases with none out in the fifth on a leadoff double by Eric Karros and singles by Marquis Grissom and Jeff Reboulet.

After Baldwin struck out, Adrian Beltre drove in Karros with a sacrifice fly and Mark Grudzielanek grounded out.

The Dodgers also squandered another opportunity for a big inning in the seventh while chasing Neagle.

They had runners on second and third with none out after Karros led off with a walk and Grissom blooped a double down the right-field line.

Enter Speier.

Karros scored when Chris Donnels , pinch-hitting for Reboulet, grounded to first. Speier then struck out Dave Hansen, hitting for Baldwin, and Beltre.

“We had the one situation there where we had the bases-loaded, no-out situation,” Tracy said. “We hit the sac fly and that’s all we were able to come away with. Then we had the second-and-third situation, hoping that we could extend that inning, and we just got the ground ball to first base.”

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