Another Low Point for Dodgers

Dioner Navarro was at the side of his wife, Sherley, as she gave birth to the couple’s first child Tuesday and took in every knee-knocking moment as she delivered Dioner Jr.

“I thought I was going to faint,” Navarro said sheepishly.

He had to feel downright sick Wednesday night.

The rookie catcher had perhaps the best view as the Dodgers blew a five-run lead against the Colorado Rockies and eventually fell, 8-7, before a season-low announced crowd of 30,329.

It was the second consecutive night the Dodgers announced a season-low crowd and the second night in a row they lost in especially gloomy fashion.

Cory Sullivan’s two-out, two-run home run in the eighth inning against Dodger reliever Yhency Brazoban was the difference and was Sullivan’s career best-tying fourth hit.

Brazoban (4-9) took the loss, and Colorado reliever Jamey Wright (7-16) earned the victory.

Colorado closer Brian Fuentes pitched a scoreless ninth for the left-hander’s 28th save in 31 opportunities.

Making the defeat all the more galling for the Dodgers (66-79), they fell six games behind San Diego in the National League West with 17 games remaining in the regular season, including the final three at San Diego.

The Padres staged their own comeback victory earlier in the day at San Francisco after trailing by two runs with two out and two strikes in the ninth. The Dodgers are tied with the Giants for second and begin a four-game series tonight at SBC Park.

“The situation has become very difficult for both us and San Francisco,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “We both trail by six, but stranger things have happened in this game.”

The Rockies (59-86) won seven of the last eight meetings with the Dodgers to take the season series, 11-8.

Still, the Dodgers got the early jump on the Rockies in the series finale, touching Arizona starter Byung-Hyun Kim for two runs in each of the first two innings.

Kim more resembled the frazzled Arizona closer who was rocked by the New York Yankees in the 2001 World Series than the starter who entered the game with a 1.86 earned-run average against the Dodgers this season.

In the first, Jeff Kent’s single scored Willy Aybar for Kent’s 100th run batted in of the season.

It marked the eighth time in Kent’s career that he has had a 100-RBI season, setting a record for a player whose primary position is second base. Hall of Famers Charlie Gehringer and Tony Lazzeri had seven 100-RBI seasons.

One batter later, Oscar Robles scored on Ricky Ledee’s sacrifice fly.

In the second, Jose Cruz Jr. came home on Jason Repko’s suicide squeeze bunt, and Repko scored with two out on Robles’ ground-rule double.

Repko’s solo home run, his seventh homer, deep into the Dodger bullpen gave the Dodgers a 5-0 lead in the fourth.

Then the wheels came off for the Dodgers.

Dodger rookie starter D.J. Houlton was cruising until the fifth, stranding Colorado runners through four innings, when he gave up a two-out grand slam to Garrett Atkins.

“It was a struggle all night to throw strikes,” said Houlton, whose next start is in question because his turn comes up on an off-day. He might not pitch again until Sept. 23. “I can’t go out there walking guys and expect to win.”

Olmedo Saenz gave the Dodgers a two-run cushion with his solo blast in the fifth, his career-high 15th homer, but the Rockies tied it at 6-6 off Franquelis Osoria in the sixth on Todd Helton’s two-run single.

The Dodgers again went up by one in the seventh when Aybar scored on Kent’s double-play grounder, but they coughed it up in the eighth on Sullivan’s fourth homer of the year.