Dodger Win Streak Ends at 10

It wasn’t just the Colorado Rockies who ended the Dodger 10-game win streak with a 7-3 victory Tuesday night. Give quirky Coors Field and Mother Nature some credit too.

A wind-blown fly ball that second baseman Alex Cora thought was going foul bounced just inside the right-field line for a leadoff double in Colorado’s five-run first inning, and first baseman Fred McGriff lost third baseman Adrian Beltre’s throw in the sun, enabling the Rockies to score two more runs in the inning.

Colorado right fielder Larry Walker had two huge hits, a two-run triple in the first and a two-out, two-run single in the seventh, and the Rockies took advantage of a rare shaky start by a Dodger pitcher -- Kazuhisa Ishii -- to hand the Dodgers their first loss since May 13.

The five-run first matched the Dodger season-high for runs allowed in an inning.

“What can you say? The streak is over,” center fielder Brian Jordan said. “You knew it was going to happen sooner or later. We just have to bounce back [tonight] and start another streak. We can’t let this bother us.”

The Dodgers may have caught the Rockies at a bad time, though: They’re home. Colorado has baseball’s worst road record, 6-19, but the Rockies are tied with the Oakland Athletics for the best home record at 19-8.

One reason is the Rockies are more familiar with the peculiarities of their park, one of them being that the sun sets beyond the left-field corner, causing such a glare that the first baseman can be virtually blinded while trying to catch a throw from third base in the first inning or two of 7 p.m. games.

“You always wondered why [Colorado first baseman Todd] Helton has those flip-down [sunglasses] on early in the game,” Jordan said. “Now we know.”

So, too, does McGriff, but only after a hard lesson Tuesday night. Ronnie Belliard opened the first with a high fly ball that landed like a lawn dart between Cora and right fielder Shawn Green for a double.

“Any other park, that’s a foul ball, but they carry and stay fair here,” Cora said. “When he first hit it, I thought it was way foul.”

Jay Payton’s RBI double to right made it 1-0, Helton walked, and Preston Wilson bounced into a fielder’s choice, Payton taking third. Walker’s two-run triple made it 3-0, Jose Hernandez walked, and Charles Johnson struck out for the second out.

Hernandez stole second, and Chris Stynes grounded to third. McGriff, who wasn’t wearing sunglasses, tried to shield the sun with his glove but couldn’t track Beltre’s throw, which sailed past him and into foul territory, allowing Walker and Hernandez to score for a 5-0 lead. McGriff was charged with an error on the play.

“When he first threw it, I saw it, but then I lost it,” McGriff said. “I’m lucky I didn’t get hit in the face. I knew I was in trouble, but I still tried to make the play. I feel bad, but what can you do? Sunglasses wouldn’t have helped.”

McGriff said the Dodgers didn’t discuss before the game how they would handle the sun, but they did after Stynes’ grounder.

“I think the best thing to do is one-hop the throw,” Beltre said.

What will McGriff do should that situation arise again?

“Pray.”

Despite their early five-run deficit, the Dodgers had more than a prayer Tuesday night. This was Coors Field, after all, the land of offense, and the Dodgers chipped away with runs in the second (Beltre RBI single), fourth (Beltre RBI single) and sixth (Cesar Izturis RBI groundout) to pull within 5-3.

But Walker’s clutch hit off Guillermo Mota, which ended the Dodger reliever’s 15 2/3-inning scoreless streak, gave the Rockies a four-run cushion. Mota, who hadn’t given up a run since April 28, retired the first two batters in the seventh before Payton smoked a double to right.

Helton was intentionally walked, but Mota then walked Hernandez to load the bases. Left-hander Tom Martin was not warming up, so the right-handed Mota pitched to the left-handed Walker, who fouled off two 1-and-2 pitches before lining a fastball right up the middle, scoring two runs for a 7-3 lead.

Ishii rebounded after his 41-pitch first inning to blank the Rockies on no hits for the next four innings, but he was charged with five runs -- three earned -- and three hits in five innings and fell to 4-2.

Dodger starters were 10-0 with a 1.63 earned-run average during the streak.

“We didn’t exactly get started on the right foot,” Manager Jim Tracy said. “And there were some strange things that happened that had a significant impact on the game.”