Matt Magill’s walk on the wild side leads to Dodgers’ 7-2 loss

This is what happens when a team gets down to its ninth starting pitcher? Tenth if you count the departed Aaron Harang?

It gets a little thin, which the Dodgers honestly had to expect. But probably not this thin, not this bad.

In poor Matt Magill’s six innings Sunday he gave up four home runs and walked nine (one intentionally).

That’s historically bad stuff. So bad that it was almost surprising the Dodgers lost only 7-2 to the Rockies at Coors Field.

Magill was both emergency starter and sacrificial lamb, the 23-year-old called up from triple-A Albuquerque on Sunday when Hyun-Jin Ryu was scratched from his scheduled start because of a sore foot.

During his last start Ryu deflected a comebacker and the ball struck the top of his left foot, and the Dodgers were concerned he could mess up his delivery trying to adjust to pitching with a sore plant foot.

Safe to say, Ryu could have performed better on one leg than Magill did on two Sunday. His pitches were up all day, though no one can say he didn’t battle.

Dexter Fowler led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run, and added a two-run shot off Magill in the sixth. In between, there were solo shots by Todd Helton and Michael Cuddyer, and a whole lot of walks.

Magill walked at least one batter in each of his six innings. Not that the bullpen ever stirred. The relief corps had been fairly battered in Denver and the Dodgers seemed determined to get at least six innings out of the young right-hander.

Despite his wildness, it was a 2-2 game going into the bottom of the fourth when the numbers got all crooked on Magill.

The Dodgers’ latest patchwork lineup — A.J. Ellis (strained oblique) was placed on the disabled list Sunday to make room for Magill — managed a pair of runs off Colorado’s Jorge De La Rosa on a Skip Schumaker double, but otherwise went quietly.

Magill allowed only five hits, of course four being of the long-ball variety. He became the first pitcher in the post-dead ball era (after 1919) to walk nine or more and allow four home runs in the same game. Only one Dodger has ever walked more in a game (Stan Williams, 12, in 11 innings in 1961).

It made for an unsightly game, the Dodgers falling to 23-32 -- and even more troubling, 6-18 vs. teams in their own division.

These Dodgers are currently trying to make do without starting pitchers Chad Billingsley, Josh Beckett and Stephen Fife. And on Sunday, not making do very well.

For De La Rosa, however, it was a little history of another kind. Sunday marked his first victory against the Dodgers in 15 appearances (11 starts).