Dodgers Left at Starting Line

The Dodgers could get by with a three-man starting rotation should they make the playoffs. On a Sunday afternoon when another starter not named Penny, Lowe or Maddux struggled mightily, that realization perhaps provided them with some small comfort.

For all their strengths, the Dodgers are not especially deep in starting pitching. The No. 4 starter is an injured rookie who could face fatigue issues as his innings mount, and the No. 5 starter has been a sizable bust since coming over from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in June.

With his options limited, Dodgers Manager Grady Little turned to veteran Aaron Sele on Sunday and the results seemed almost predictable during a 12-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers accomplished two unusual feats in ending their seven-game winning streak: They lost in embarrassing fashion despite collecting 13 hits and dropped a game in the National League West standings for the first time since Aug. 23, their lead over the San Diego Padres falling to three games.

The Rockies bombed Sele for nine hits and six runs in 4 1/3 innings in his first start since Aug. 1 and were equally vicious to a trio of Dodgers relievers. Colorado had 18 hits in all, including a prodigious 481-foot home run by Matt Holliday that cleared the Dodgers’ bullpen beyond the left-field wall.

Subbing for rookie Chad Billingsley, who is sidelined with a strained left oblique muscle, Sele made it through the first four innings in fine form, giving up one run on Brad Hawpe’s single through the right side.

The Dodgers surged ahead, 2-1, in the bottom of the fourth on James Loney’s run-scoring bloop single to right-center field and Toby Hall’s RBI single past diving first baseman Todd Helton.

But Sele unraveled quickly in the fifth. The right-hander retired only one of the six batters he faced, and that was on pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim’s sacrifice bunt. Kazuo Matsui ripped a two-run triple, Helton followed with an RBI double and Garrett Atkins drove in another run with a single up the middle to put the Rockies ahead, 5-2.

“I was up across the board in the fifth inning and just couldn’t get the ball down,” Sele said. “The Rockies have a good team, and when you get a chance to give them some momentum, they [take] advantage of it.”

Little didn’t help his pitchers by fielding a lineup without regulars Jeff Kent, Nomar Garciaparra and Russell Martin, who all got the day off. Their replacements -- second baseman Julio Lugo, first baseman James Loney and catcher Hall -- went a combined two for 10 through the first seven innings.

“We put a team on the field we thought we could win with and things didn’t happen that way,” Little said.

Lugo had a particularly tough day, going hitless in five at-bats. After Rafael Furcal and Kenny Lofton opened the bottom of the fifth inning with singles, Lugo popped out and the Dodgers eventually stranded both runners.

In the seventh, Lugo batted with runners on second and third and struck out. In the ninth, with two runs in on Marlon Anderson’s two-run homer, Lugo struck out again.

The Dodgers have struggled to find production from the back end of their rotation, getting only three victories combined from the Nos. 4 and 5 starters over the last month. Billingsley, whose 151 innings between the Dodgers and triple-A Las Vegas are a career high, is reaching uncharted territory, and Hendrickson has won only once in 11 starts as a Dodger.

That leaves Sele and rookie left-hander Hong-Chih Kuo as alternatives, though neither likely would be an option should the Dodgers advance deep into October.

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ben.bolch@latimes.com