Colorado Rockies Show Some Life, Lose Anyways

May 10, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (2) reacts to his strikeout in the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

After a terrible week of weather, the Colorado Rockies finally got on the field Sunday afternoon – Mother’s Day! – against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

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On a day where Los Angeles Dodgers’ super-human starter Clayton Kershaw was decidedly human – he allowed five runs in 5.2 innings – the Colorado Rockies couldn’t take advantage of the windfall and allowed seven unanswered runs after taking a 5-2 lead, losing 9-5 on Mother’s Day at Coors Field.

The loss is the ninth in a row for the Rockies, and the 15th in their last 19 games, as they ended a rain-shortened homestand with an 0-4 record.

The Dodgers got on board first in this game, in the second inning, when Enrique Hernandez drove in Alex Guerrero on a fielder’s choice groundout. Guerrero had been at third after hitting a double to lead off the inning, and advancing on Chris Heisey’s single off Jorge De La Rosa.

De La Rosa wiggled out of the inning with a double play, but once again, a Rockies opponent took the lead first against the club that lost eight straight games and nine of ten coming into Sunday.

In the top of the fourth, the Dodgers scratched out another run, thanks to an all-too-familiar foe of the Rockies: walks. De La Rosa allowed a double to Adrian Gonzlaez, and then walked three batters, bringing in a run on the free passes and extending the Dodgers’ lead to 2-0.

Dodgers’ starter Clayton Kershaw may as well have needed only one early on, mowing down the first seven Rockies he faced – including four by strikeouts – until Rafael Ynoa broke up the consecutive outs with a single in the third inning.

In the bottom of the fourth, though, things got interesting for the Rockies. DJ LeMahieu walked, Troy Tulowitzki singled, and LeMahieu advanced on a flyout by Nolan Arenado to put runners on the corners with one out for recently recalled Wilin Rosario.

Rosario then singled home LeMahieu, putting the Rockies on the board and cutting the Dodgers’ lead in half. Nick Hundley then singled home Tulowitzki, tying the game at two apiece. With his single, Hundley extended his hitting streak to 12 games, which is the longest current active streak in the National League.

Drew Stubbs then hit a dribbler that pushed Hundley to second and loaded the bases with one out for Ynoa, who hit an RBI ground-out that gave the Rockies a 3-2 lead.

With two outs and two on, Jorge De La Rosa then singled to center field, scoring Hundley and Stubbs, and giving the Rockies a 5-2 lead. In all, nine batters came to the plate in the fourth for the Rockies, and five scored off two-time Cy Young Award winner Kershaw.

Searching for a shut-down inning in the top of the fifth, De La Rosa promptly walked the bases loaded (again), making it six of the last seven batters he’d faced at that point having reached by a base on balls.

With the bases loaded and nobody out, Gonzalez came to bat and promptly emptied the bases, hitting a double to tie the game at five again.

That was it for De La Rosa, who gave way with no outs and Gonzalez on second to reliever Christian Bergman. De La Rosa threw 80 pitches – just 43 strikes – and walked six and allowed five hits in four-plus innings on the day.

Bergman walked a batter, but got out of the fifth, and halfway through the game the two clubs were tied at five in the cold Mother’s Day weather. Bergman threw a scoreless sixth, too – though he walked two more hitters, giving Rockies’ pitchers nine walks through the first six frames – but the score remained tied at five to that point.

The Rockies loaded the bases on Kershaw in the sixth, and knocked him out of the game with two outs. Tulowitzki came up against Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez, but he struck out to end the threat before the Rox could break the tie.

The Dodgers broke the game open in the eighth inning, when Justin Turner hit a two-run home run off Scott Oberg, and then scored two more on a single and sacrifice fly, to take a 9-5 lead into the bottom half of the inning.

The Rockies couldn’t muster anything in the eighth or ninth, and lost by four runs to end their weather-affected homestand winless.

The Rox have now lost nine games in a row, and ten of their last eleven, with the Dodgers sweeping the rain-shortened series and the Rockies going 0-4 on the weather-shortened homestand.

The Rockies will enjoy an off-day monday, and then play six games in Los Angeles – two in Anaheim before four against the Dodgers to get through the weekend.

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