Dodgers can’t break pattern

DENVER -- The Dodgers are a week removed from the All-Star break and they’re still waiting for their first quality start of the second half of the season.

The rotation that kept the weak-hitting Dodgers in contention by posting a 3.98 earned-run average in the first half of the season has been a liability so far in the second.

Heading into a Friday night meeting with the Washington Nationals that marks the start of a 10-game homestand, the Dodgers’ starters are a combined 0-3 with an 8.77 ERA. They’re averaging less than 4 1/3 innings per start.

“It’s our strength and it’s going to have to be our strength,” Manager Joe Torre said, alluding to how his team still can’t hit. “We’re going to have to pitch better than we’ve pitched on this trip.”

The six-game trip that started in Arizona concluded on Wednesday with a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in which starter Hiroki Kuroda was hurt by the mile-high altitude much the way Clayton Kershaw and Eric Stults were in the first two games of the series.

By dropping the rubber match of the three-game set, the Dodgers let the Rockies finish their seven-game homestand with a 6-1 mark and climb to within five games of them for second place in the National League West.

Kuroda gave up five runs and nine hits over six innings and lost for the second time since the break. He was 2-0 with a 1.24 ERA in the three games leading up to the midseason intermission, a stretch that included a shutout of the Atlanta Braves in which he had a perfect game through seven innings.

The five runs charged to Kuroda were scored in the first three innings. He gave up two runs in a four-hit first and three in the third, when the Rockies started the inning with three consecutive extra-base hits. Jeff Baker tripled and scored on a double by Matt Holliday, who scored on a double by Brad Hawpe. Ian Stewart singled home Hawpe.

Kuroda acknowledged that the ballpark’s reputation had an impact on him. He didn’t throw many sliders in the first three innings and when he did, he usually missed the strike zone.

“I was told that breaking balls don’t break the same here,” Kuroda said. “What I threw wasn’t what I imagined I would throw and that might’ve affected me.”

Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said he was unsure of the effect, if any, the four days of the All-Star break had on the pitchers. Kuroda and Chad Billingsley were deprived of bullpen sessions and Derek Lowe went 10 days between starts.

Lowe was far from pleased with his outing in Arizona -- four runs in 5 1/3 innings -- but said it was a positive sign that the Dodgers were able to take two of three games from the Diamondbacks over the weekend with the starters struggling as much as they did.

“The starting pitchers not going deep at all shows the tremendous job that the bullpen did,” Lowe said. “This is very encouraging. . . . When you get to the second half of the season, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit or who does good or bad, the bottom line is the team wins.”

There are a couple of unknown variables in the equation, the first concerning the opening in the rotation on Tuesday.

Jason Johnson, who has limited the opposition to two runs in seven innings in two relief appearances, could get the nod.

Then there is the more pressing question regarding opening-day starter Brad Penny, who threw a bullpen session Tuesday and is scheduled to make a start in the minors this weekend.

Torre said he expected that Penny would have to pitch twice in the minors, meaning he could be back in the rotation in the first week of August.

Penny, who hasn’t pitched since June 14 because of shoulder problems that he said started in spring training, has a 5-9 record with a 5.88 ERA.

“Even without him, we have experienced quality arms, but Brad can be a huge lift for us,” Honeycutt said. “So we need him healthy and throwing well. If we can get him back for 10, 11 starts, it could be huge.”

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dylan.hernandez@latimes.com