Rockies start what may be power trip
Arenado hits three-run homer off Dodgers’ Kershaw
LOS ANGELES» Nolan Arenado draws a blueprint for his at-bats before every game — which pitches to key on, the ideal swings for the right moments. He envisions hits. Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, against the best pitcher in baseball, he shredded that plan on the first pitch.
“These are the times when you just have to go up there and say ‘screw it’ and trust who you are and let it eat,” Arenado said before the Rockies faced Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers’ ace lefthander.
Arenado hit a three-run homer off Kershaw in the first inning.
And before the top of the fourth had ended, Kershaw’s night was over. He lasted just 3M innings, allowing four runs on six hits. And the Rockies added on from there, leading 9-1 through seven innings.
At nearly any earlier point in the season, a team might consider a matchup at Dodger Stadium against the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner to be a lost cause. But the Rockies kicked off a make-or-break, eightgame road swing against the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks with a postseason berth in sight, even though they were on the verge of distress.
After a 3-6 homestand, including two series against teams with losing records, the Rockies sank into apprehension. At 74-65 before two four-game sets in Los Angeles and Phoenix, just two games separated Colorado from the also-rans, including the surging St. Louis Cardinals.
Over their final 23 games, very little sets up to be pleasant for the Rockies. Kershaw’s start Thursday was the harbinger. If the Rockies play one game above .500 the rest of the way, they will finish with 86 victories. That total would have left the Rockies outside the postseason in each of the
past three seasons.
“You know what Winston Churchill said, don’t you?” Colorado manager Bud Black said. “When you’re going through hell, you know what you do? Keep going. That’s what you’ve got to do. You can’t just sit there.”
Monday, it seemed the Rockies might dodge Kershaw in this series. The Dodgers star would have pitched Wednesday in a regular rotation, but Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts is using a six-man rotation this week to help rest weary arms. That pushed Kershaw to Thursday against Colorado.
“Hey, man, he’s tough. But you know? I like watching him pitch,” Black said. “I do. Don’t get me wrong. It wouldn’t bother me if he missed the series. But I like watching him. It’s a great challenge for us.”
Kershaw is inevitable. If the Rockies hold on to play a onegame playoff against, most likely, the Arizona Diamondbacks in a wild-card game Oct. 4, they would be playing for the opportunity to face Kershaw in Los Angeles on Oct. 6. There is no escaping the lefty with a 16-2 record and a baseball-best 1.95 ERA entering Thursday.
But the Rockies now can draw from two positive memories against Kershaw. Thursday night and April 8 at Coors Field, when they tagged him for three home runs — a Kershaw career high — in a 4-2 victory, part of a whiplash start that had the Rockies in first place in the National League West as late as June 20.
Black savors the opportunity to measure his team against the lefty who no-hit the Rockies at Dodger Stadium in 2014, so he should have been pleased with Thursday’s result, especially with the pressure of playing for a wildcard spot.
“That’s what I’m trying to get these guys to understand. This is great. This is fun,” Black said. “Original Rockies, Rockies who were raised as Rockies, haven’t been through it. This is what we play for. I want them to enjoy it. And get the experience. Because if we do it next year and the year after that, they’ll be better for it. That’s what I want. Because there are probably 15, maybe 20 teams who would gladly trade places with us. No doubt.”
Footnote.
The Rockies called up rookie outfielder Raimel Tapia and activated catcher Ryan Hanigan. Both were available Thursday. Hanigan returned from a strained groin muscle and is now the fourth catcher on Colorado’s roster. Tapia, Black said, has “really put himself on the radar going forward” after his season shuttling between Triple-A and Colorado.