Rockies enjoy the midnight show in 14th

You can talk all you want about strategy and pitching changes and righty-lefty matchups.

But, Dodgers Manager Grady Little insists, sometimes the difference between winning and losing a baseball game comes down to something a lot less cerebral.

“A lot of luck is involved,” Little says.

And sometimes that luck can be bad. Or just fickle.

Take Saturday, for example, when Matt Holliday’s one-out single scored Ryan Spilborghs from third, sparking a three-run 14th-inning rally that lifted the Colorado Rockies to a 7-4 win over the Dodgers in 14 innings.

Held to one entering the bottom of the seventh, the Dodgers got off the deck to score three times in the next two innings -- with two of the runs following stolen bases by their catcher -- to send the game into extra innings.

Pretty lucky, huh?

Then came the 14th when reliever Roberto Hernandez, making the 1,001st appearance of his career, gave up Spilborghs’ leadoff double, which one-hopped the center field wall. After a sacrifice and a walk, Holliday, hitless in six previous trips on the night, lined a single into left to break the tie. An out and a walk later, Brad Hawpe lined a single back through the middle, nearly decapitating Hernandez and putting the icing on a win that cost the Dodgers a chance to pull within 1 1/2 games of the lead in the National League wild-card race.

It should never have come to that, however. The Rockies appeared to be breezing to victory through seven innings before hitting a bump in the eighth when reliever Jorge Julio gave up two runs on two hits, two walks and a costly error by third baseman Garrett Atkins.

The big blow came from third baseman Shea Hillenbrand, whose third hit of the night, a two-out blooper just beyond the glove of shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, brought Russell Martin home with the tying run.

The hit also ruined a splendid big league debut by left-hander Franklin Morales, who gave up just a first-inning home run to Matt Kemp in 5 1/3 innings. Morales had an impressive debut at the plate too, singling in the Rockies’ second run in the second inning.

Colorado then added what appeared to an insurance run in the fifth on Cory Sullivan’s first home run of the season into the first row of seats near the right-field foul pole. And they might have had more except for an acrobatic -- and controversial -- play by Kemp two pitches later.

Holliday followed Sullivan’s homer by belting a one-strike pitch just about over the wall in right-center. But Kemp went up and slapped at it with his glove, first keeping the ball in the park, then snatching it out of the air for an apparent out.

Second base umpire Mike Everitt ruled the ball had brushed the wall on the way down, however, giving Holliday a double. After consulting with the rest of the umpiring crew, Everitt’s call was reversed and Kemp was credited with a putout, bringing Colorado Manager Clint Hurdle on to the field for an animated argument.

The Rockies did score again in the seventh when Kaz Matsui walked with two outs, stole second, moved to third on Martin’s throwing error and scored on a single by Sullivan. The Dodgers matched that in the bottom of the inning when Martin walked, stole second and rode home on a Hillenbrand single.

For Martin, the steal was his 19th of the season, breaking Con Daily’s 115-year-old franchise record for stolen bases by a catcher. He stole second again an inning later, setting the stage for Hillenbrand’s two-out game-tying hit.

Rudy Seanez got out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam in the top of the 11th, getting Sullivan on an unusual 6-2-5 double play to end the inning. His smash up the middle looked like a two-run single, but shortstop Rafael Furcal one-hopped it, threw home, and Martin went to third for the third out.

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kevin.baxter@latimes.com