Rockies 6, Dodgers 5: Colorado holds on for its third consecutive win over slumping Los Angeles. »
LOS ANGELES» The old visitors clubhouse at Dodger Stadium was built with mouse-like proportions, a tiny cubbyhole in the middle of a basement maze. The newer, improved digs aren’t much bigger. You could hit both sides of the room with one swing of the bat.
Perfect for busting out. As the Rockies clawed through a 6-5 victory Saturday night — an improbable and possibly season-saving third win in a row over the Dodgers — another struggling Colorado hitter escaped purgatory.
Trevor Story’s two-run homer, his 20th this season, keyed a fourrun second inning as the Rockies (77-65) remained three games ahead of the Cardinals and Brewers in the National League wildcard standings. Story also doubled in a run in the fifth. They’ve won five of their past six games.
The Dodgers (92-50) continued to burn. They have, by far, the best record in baseball — but the NL West runaways have lost 14 of their past 15 games.
In part because two Colorado hitters flipped their slumps. Carlos Gonzalez went 3-for-5 on Thursday with a homer in the Rockies’ 9-1 win over Clayton Kershaw, and he homered again Friday off Yu Darvish in a 5-4 win. He is now hitting above .250 for the first time since May 25.
Story is following suit. The second-year shortstop has struck out more than any other hitter in the league, 171 in total, but against Alex Wood, Story found a groove. He belted a first-pitch fastball in the second over the wall in center field to score Gerardo Parra, who led off with a double. Story is just the second Rockies shortstop to reach 20 homers in consecutive seasons, after Troy Tulowitzki did it three years running through 2011.
The second inning was boosted by Charlie Blackmon, whose runscoring single gave him 88 RBIS from the leadoff spot, tying Craig Biggio (1998) for most in NL history; and Nolan Arenado, who added an RBI single. Arenado played in his 700th career game, 11th most in Rockies history.
Wood had dominated the Rockies this season, allowing just one run in 11 innings over two victories. But in the fifth, Story clipped Wood again, doubling off the center-field wall to score Parra again as the Rockies took a 5-3 lead. The Dodgers had rallied in the fourth behind Yasiel Puig’s two-run double off the heel of Arenado’s glove.
Colorado’s Chad Bettis, who had struggled in his career at Dodger Stadium with a 6.75 ERA in five previous games, found his own reprieve. He faced the minimum number of batters through three innings on just 40 pitches. And his glovework glittered.
With Puig on first base in the second inning, Yasmani Grandal hit a hot shot toward right field. Mark Reynolds dived to his right to stop the grounder and threw to Story at second. Story bobbled the ball but flung a short throw to first, where Bettis scooped the turn out of the dirt.
Andre Ethier’s pinch-hit homer in the fifth, his first home run this year, was a boomer off Bettis over the visiting bullpen that trimmed the Rockies’ lead to 5-4. But Bettis, the Rockies’ veteran right-hander who returned from cancer on Aug. 14, won his first game this season after some hard-luck nodecisions. He muscled through five innings on six hits and three earned runs allowed.
And in another battle of the bullpens, Rockies right-hander Scott Oberg, who threw 100 mph for the first time in his life earlier this year at Dodger Stadium, struck out three in the sixth. Pat Neshek forced three flyballs in the seventh. Lefty Jake Mcgee set down Justin Turner, Puig and Austin Barnes. And Greg Holland, after allowing a leadoff home run to Logan Forsythe, retired the next three batters for his 39th save.