Zack Greinke still rolling, but gets no support in Dodgers’ 1-0 loss

Good news, there’s good news to be found on the Dodgers: Zack Greinke looked sharp in his final start of the regular season.

Bad news, yeah, some of that too. A little too much perhaps.

Despite Greinke’s strong outing, the Dodgers fell to the Colorado Rockies, 1-0, Saturday night as their offense again fell flat in front of 52,879 at Dodger Stadium.

The bad news started even before the first pitch, when the Dodgers ran out to their positions to start the game … and there was no Matt Kemp.

Kemp was scheduled to start in center field, but was a late scratch because his left ankle was sore. The Dodgers called the move precautionary, but it is the same ankle that forced Kemp to sit out 53 games, although a few were added when his hamstring tightened up again.

Recurring injury has been an unfortunate theme for Kemp this season. He has appeared in only 73 of the Dodgers’ 161 games.

Saturday’s game offered little from a Dodgers team that scored 11 runs Friday. The Dodgers managed only three hits against six pitchers and went quietly most of the warm fall night.

Their biggest scoring opportunity came after they loaded the bases with one out in the sixth inning on an error, a Hanley Ramirez single and a walk. But reliever Adam Ottavino came on to get Juan Uribe to foul out and Scott Van Slyke to fly out to right field.

Greinke continued his terrific play in the second half, giving up a run and four hits in six innings. He did not walk a batter and struck out seven.

The Rockies scored in the fourth inning on doubles by Troy Tulowitzki and Nolan Arenado. Van Slyke made a diving attempt, but came up short on Arenado’s drive.

Greinke ended his regular season with a 15-4 record and a 2.63 earned-run average. Saturday was his first loss since July 25. In his 12 games since then, he is 7-1 with a 1.58 ERA. He has not given up more than two runs in any of those 12 starts.

Paco Rodriguez, who has struggled this month, was back to form, pitching a perfect eighth inning. He retired the side in order, including two strikeouts. Brian Wilson retired the Rockies in order in the ninth.

See, just all kinds of good news.