Dodgers can’t find an offense in 1-0 loss to Rockies
Don Newcombe turns 90 next week, but the Dodgers are out of town, so they threw him a mighty festive party on the field on Wednesday. He was serenaded in birthday song, presented with a cake — one candle was enough, thank you very much — and given a standing ovation by Vin Scully, from the broadcast booth.
When Scully made his 1950 debut as a voice of the Dodgers, Newcombe was the starting pitcher. The Dodgers would leave for Los Angeles before the end of the decade, but not before Brooklyn had won a World Series and Newcombe had established himself as one of the finest pitchers in the game.
The Dodgers had one more gift for Newcombe on Wednesday: a pitcher’s duel, in honor of the first pitcher in franchise history to win the Cy Young Award. They did not gift him with a victory, though.
They did not even score a run. The Dodgers lost, 1-0, and they lost two of three games to the Colorado Rockies in a series in which they got all of 10 hits.
“We’ve got to win that game,” Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said. “We’ve still got to score to win.”
They did neither. They now head to San Francisco for a three-game series against the first-place Giants, the team they trail by four games in the National League West. After Wednesday’s game, the Dodgers announced they had juggled their rotation for the series yet again.
Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers’ ace, already had been pushed back a day so he could start Friday’s series opener. Roberts said Wednesday that phenom Julio Urias would start Sunday’s series finale, on normal rest, with the Dodgers pushing back Mike Bolsinger to Monday’s game in Arizona.
For six innings on Wednesday, Kenta Maeda of the Dodgers and Chris Rusin of the Rockies delivered a stirring homage to Newcombe: six zeroes for the Dodgers, six zeroes for the Rockies.
In the seventh inning, the Dodgers staged a little comedy routine -- and a party favor for the Rockies. Colorado had two outs and a man on second, and the left-handed Daniel Descalso due up.
Roberts said that as he headed to the mound, he thought he would remove Maeda. The pitcher assumed as much.
“I was thinking, ‘Too bad,’” Maeda said.
Then Roberts thought twice about it and signaled for Maeda’s interpreter.
Left-hander Adam Liberatore saw the signal, assumed it was for him and ran onto the field. Then he found out otherwise. Roberts decided he liked Maeda against Descalso better than Liberatore against the superior right-handed hitters on the Rockies’ bench, Mark Reynolds and Trevor Story.
That forced Liberatore to run back to the bullpen.
“Never done that,” he said.
Liberatore retreated to the bullpen, Descalso blooped a run-scoring single on the next pitch and the Rockies had the game’s only run. Roberts then replaced Maeda with Liberatore.
Maeda was splendid. He struck out nine, his most since leaving Japan to sign with the Dodgers last winter. He gave up that one run in 62/3 innings, on a tidy 97 pitches, lowering his earned-run average to 2.70. The only National League rookie starter with a better ERA: Steven Matz of the New York Mets, at 2.69.
If the Dodgers are going to win a fourth consecutive National League West title, they cannot score five runs in three games against a team with an earned-run average near 5.00.
“There are some empty at-bats,” Roberts said, “some tentativeness in the swings when you get in a good hitter’s count.
“We’re missing fastballs.”
Roberts said he was not sure why. There are various theories, but Roberts noted the extreme split between the Dodgers’ offensive performance at home and on the road.
The Dodgers are averaging 3.5 runs per game at home, five runs per game on the road.
“I guess it’s a good thing we’re going on the road,” Roberts said.
Waiting to meet them in San Francisco: Johnny Cueto.
Twitter: @BillShaikin
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