Rally Has Dodgers Feeling a Mile High

Only the National League wild-card berth stands between the Dodgers and another wasted season, with the clock ticking louder each day.

They certainly displayed a sense of urgency Friday night in an 8-7 come-from-behind victory over the Colorado Rockies.

The Dodgers stunned the Rockies and a crowd of 26,828 in overcoming starter Kazuhisa Ishii’s worst outing of the season while rallying from early deficits of 6-1 and 7-2 at Coors Field.

“It’s a fantastic game for us to win, especially in the manner in which we won it,” said Manager Jim Tracy, whose team improved to 73-66 and remained three games behind of Philadelphia in the wild-card chase.

“The contributions in this game, they’re too numerous to mention. But just a lot of very good things happened tonight. We got down, 7-2, and to come back in the manner in which they did it tonight, in this ballpark, makes it that much more special.”

Adrian Beltre powered the Dodgers as they had 17 hits against the Rockies, who have dropped six in a row.

Beltre hit 860 feet worth of home runs -- connecting on his 17th and 18th -- in his first multi-homer game of the season. Todd Hundley had a three-run pinch-hit homer in the fifth to pull the Dodgers within a run, 7-6.

“It’s more luck than anything, to tell you the truth,” said Hundley, whose only two homers this season have come while pinch-hitting with two aboard. “It’s just a situation where you’re trying to hit it hard.”

Beltre led the final push with a leadoff homer in the seventh as the Dodgers scored twice to go ahead for good, 8-7. Alex Cora’s run-scoring single against Rick Reed (5-3) knocked in Jolbert Cabrera, who had three hits, with the go-ahead run.

Guillermo Mota (5-2) worked two scoreless innings as six Dodger relievers shut out Colorado after Ishii’s rocky three-inning stint. Paul Shuey and Paul Quantrill induced inning-ending grounders with Colorado challenging in the seventh and eighth, respectively, and then it was “Game Over” in the ninth.

After giving up a leadoff single to pinch-hitter Rene Reyes, Eric Gagne retired the next three batters to change the record books again with major league-leading 48th save in as many chances.

Gagne extended his streak for consecutive saves to start a season, and his overall mark for consecutive saves to 56.

The Dodgers still must climb over Florida and Philadelphia to earn the wild-card berth, but they showed resiliency and that’s something to build on with 23 games remaining in their season-ending march against the NL West.

“We took it away from them,” Gagne said of the Rockies’ come-from-way-ahead loss. “We need to win. We need to win every single game.

“You can look at the end of the season and say, ‘There are games we should have won.’ But that’s one we should have lost, and we came back and won it.”

They did it without much help from Ishii.

The left-hander again had major command issues, throwing only 45 strikes in 77 pitches. He threw 64 pitches through two innings, leaving with the Dodgers in a 7-2 hole.

The Rockies tagged Ishii for eight hits and seven runs (four earned). He walked three with two strikeouts, and he has a lot to review before his next start.

“I wasn’t able to create my own rhythm,” Ishii said through an interpreter. “Before I could create my own rhythm, I couldn’t recover, and that was the problem. I have to work on that, because I don’t want to repeat that in my next start.”