Tomko Gets the Wins Knocked Out of Him

Brett Tomko uses a breathing technique to calm himself when he’s in trouble on the mound, sucking air from deep in his diaphragm.

Maybe that explained the swirling winds at Coors Field in the early innings Saturday night. Tomko might have created an abnormal weather condition trying to extricate himself from two jams that contributed to the Dodgers’ demise in a 12-9 loss to the Colorado Rockies.

The poor pitching of Tomko and reliever Joe Beimel overshadowed the outstanding play of several Dodgers rookies. Beimel retired only one of the six batters he faced during a four-run sixth that gave the Rockies breathing room, 11-5.

Tomko (5-5) has given back everything he gained early in the season, stringing together five poor starts after five strong ones. This time, he gave up seven runs in 3 2/3 innings -- three in the first after the Dodgers opened the game with three runs and four in the fourth to erase a 5-3 lead.

Tomko’s earned-run average has jumped from 2.88 to 5.20 in five starts. Perhaps most disturbing is that he can’t pinpoint the problem.

“I feel like I’ve been making good pitches,” he said. “When I am making mistakes, I’m not getting away with it. They get me every time.”

The big blows were a three-run home run in the first by Garrett Atkins and a two-run triple in the fourth by Omar Quintanilla, his first hit of the season.

Manager Grady Little said there are no plans to have someone else take Tomko’s next start.

“The adjustments we’ve already made in the rotation are about as much as we can handle,” he said.

Little preferred to talk about the Dodgers rookies, whose stack of good deeds might have been plenty had the pitching been better.

Catcher Russell Martin hit a three-run home run to pull the Dodgers within 11-9 in the seventh, drove in a run with a single in the third and singled in the first.

Left fielder Matt Kemp drove in runs in the first with a single and in the third with a double. He also stole a base and survived crashing into a wall on a sliding attempt at a catch in foul territory.

Second baseman Willy Aybar doubled in a run and scored in the seventh and made a diving play to his right to halt a flood of Rockies baserunners in the sixth.

Left-handed reliever Hong-Chih Kuo struck out the side in the seventh and right-hander Jonathan Broxton ended the damage in the sixth by retiring the two batters he faced.

And third baseman Joel Guzman singled, walked and was hit by a pitch on the left wrist in the seventh. He stayed in the game despite dropping to his knees in pain.

The same couldn’t be said for right fielder J.D. Drew, who left in the seventh, three innings after suffering a contusion on his right thigh during a collision with Rockies second baseman Jamey Carroll.

Drew put a hurt on the Rockies with his bat, hitting a triple, double, single and sacrifice fly.

His cleanup spot came around in the eighth, but he was in the trainer’s room and Olmedo Saenz struck out. Drew said he isn’t sure whether he can play today.

The Dodgers will wait to determine whether Guzman can play in what could be his last big league game for a while. Little said the versatile 6-foot-6 rookie probably will return to triple-A Las Vegas when Jeff Kent is activated from the disabled list Tuesday.

Although Guzman has been somewhat overshadowed by Kemp, he has made an impression on the manager.

“We like his progress at third base,” Little said. “We’ll get him as many at-bats as possible.”