Rockies stumble in start of trip
LATE FRIDAY: DODGERS 6, ROCKIES 1
los angeles» Stalked by a pesky swarm of gnats around first base, Mark Reynolds waved his glove and swatted his hat in defense. Then Yasiel Puig trotted by and all the buzz fell to a stop. The Dodgers’ Cuban slugger slammed a home run to center field so deep, it buried the Rockies in a 6-1 loss Friday night in front of 43,787 fans at Chavez Ravine.
The Rockies’ sudden hangover, a headache after two blowout losses to the Diamondbacks at Coors Field, has now extended into an ear-splitting skid to start a difficult nine-game, 10-day road trip through the National League West.
A first-place team less than 72 hours prior, Colorado has quickly fallen 2½ games into third place behind the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. And on Saturday, they have to face the ace of aces, Clayton Kershaw.
On Friday, a third Rockies rookie fell to defeat. Lefty Kyle Freeland gave up seven hits in the first two innings as the Dodgers made contact with just about everything he threw, accounting for four runs. Even the outs hurt. Cody Bellinger’s sacrifice fly to deep center field in the first scored Corey Seager. Freeland wriggled out of the inning with the bases loaded.
To lead off the second, though, Freeland walked catcher Austin Barnes, a brutal mistake. The Dodgers’ offense is a buzz saw, entering Friday with a plus-123 run differential, the best in the majors. Seager and Justin Turner singled and Bellinger doubled. Add three more runs.
Puig’s home run off Freeland in the fourth came on a curveball that stayed low but crept up just high to hit the hitter’s sweet spot. He crushed his homer 445 feet to the batter’s eye in center field. The Dodgers have a home run in 15 consecutive games, their longest streak since 1977.
Freeland, at least, fared better than his rookie counterparts, Jeff Hoffman and Antonio Senzatela, who gave up nine runs apiece against Arizona.
But they were all outdueled by Dodgers starter Alex Wood. Wood, who now has struck out 17 Rockies in 12 innings this season, allowed just one run, on Tom Murphy’s double to left field in the second that Franklin Gutierrez took a wrong route to in the corner. That was also the last hit Wood allowed. He retired 14 of the next 15 he faced, and no baseball traveled farther than the infield dirt.