Kenta Maeda baffles Rockies in Dodgers’ 4-1 win

The first 16 outs Kenta Maeda recorded in a 4-1 victory demonstrated his craftsmanship, his ability to flummox his opponents, navigating the Colorado Rockies lineup without yielding a hit.

The next two outs showed his mettle, a quality the Dodgers could only guess at when the team signed him to an eight-year contract this winter. The combination of the two qualities, the skill and the poise, will only heighten expectations for Maeda as the summer approaches. Thus far he has answered every challenge and solved every riddle.

“You look at the sample of four games,” Manager Dave Roberts said, “and he’s obviously exceeded every expectation we’ve had.”

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After his bid for a no-hitter evaporated in the mountain air with one out in the sixth, Maeda loaded the bases after two more singles. The tension mounted, but Maeda refocused to erase Nolan Arenado and Gerardo Parra. Maeda skipped into the dugout after fielding Parra’s inning-ending groundout.

Along the way he turned to recognize catcher A.J. Ellis, who shepherded him through the fire. Ellis also delivered a two-run homer earlier in the night to pad his team’s advantage. Maeda would pick up one last out in the seventh before leaving the game after 94 pitches. He struck out eight as he lowered his earned-run average to 0.36.

“This guy knows how to pitch,” Ellis said. “This guy knows how to win.”

Colorado scored a run after Maeda left. Kenley Jansen collected the 150th save of his career in the ninth.

Only one man has thrown a no-hitter at this ballpark. His name was Hideo Nomo. He wore Dodgers blue when he achieved the milestone Sept. 17, 1996.

In the fall of 1996, Maeda lived in a town called Tadaoka in the prefecture of Osaka. He was 7, a boy growing up in the countryside. Nomo did not transfix him. He could not even recall the game.

“I didn’t play baseball at that time,” Maeda said Friday. “I was playing soccer.”

In his fourth big league start, Maeda made his maiden foray into these unfriendly confines. There is not a comparable environment in Japan, where the stadiums sit around sea level. The Dodgers told Maeda that the atmosphere would be relatively similar to the Cactus League. The baseball flies, the hits are plentiful and offspeed pitches lose their sting.

Maeda altered his approach slightly to combat the elements. He leaned on his changeup. He also operated with “the best fastball command he’s had since I’ve seen him,” Roberts said. He struck out Trevor Story in the first inning with a curveball and Carlos Gonzalez in the next at-bat with a slider.

Ellis aided Maeda’s cause in the second. The Dodgers had handed Maeda a run in the first after a single by Corey Seager, a double by Yasiel Puig and an RBI groundout by Adrian Gonzalez. Ellis came to bat an inning later after a hit by Joc Pederson.

Ellis worked a full count against Rockies starter Tyler Chatwood. He fouled off a fastball at the fists. Chatwood shipped another fastball, this one at the thighs. Ellis parked the baseball deep into the left-field seats.

In the fifth, Maeda froze Ryan Raburn with an 89-mph fastball right down the middle. He pumped a 90-mph fastball past Grant Paulsen for another strikeout. Then Tony Wolters pounced on a slider that hung in the thin air.

In left field stood Enrique Hernandez, called into action by a freak accident the day before, when Wolters stomped on the foot of Justin Turner. The blow swelled Turner’s big toe and left him hobbled. So Howie Kendrick, the team’s usual choice for left field, started at third base. And now Hernandez sprinted after Wolters’ liner.

“The fans were talking a lot of trash to me,” Hernandez said. “So I just wanted to do something to shut them up.”

A few steps shy of the warning track, Hernandez reached up with his left hand as the baseball cleared his right shoulder. The baseball landed in the webbing of his glove as Hernandez tumbled to the grass.

It was the last moment of the dream. Batting in the No. 9 spot, second baseman D.J. LeMahieu plopped a single in center field in the sixth. Story punched another hit into right. Gonzalez rolled a grounder in between Seager and second baseman Chase Utley to load the bases.

Maeda swept his foot to clear his landing space on the mound as pitching coach Rick Honeycutt ventured from the dugout for a conference. Waiting on deck was Arenado, Colorado’s most fearsome hitter.

Maeda lived dangerously. He fired a fastball inside for a strike. Arenado declined to attack a hanging curveball. A 1-2 changeup flattened as it crossed the plate, but Arenado swung late and skied an infield pop-up. Parra chased a slider and tapped it back to the mound. Maeda fed Ellis for the force at the plate and jogged away.

“He just doesn’t scare off,” Roberts said. “He just continued to make pitches.”

Follow Andy McCullough on Twitter @McCulloughTimes