Rockies 5, Dodgers 3: Colorado, behind Jon Gray, wins its second in a row over Los Angeles after dropping 12 straight.
Jon Gray brought some semblance of sanity back to Coors Field, and he beat the Dodgers in the process.
On a perfect, late-june Saturday night in Lodo, complete with a technicolor sunset, the Rockies won 5-3, their second consecutive win over Los Angeles after losing 12 straight games.
After a string of outrageous, high-scoring games of pinball at Coors, Gray, as well as Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw, set a reasonable tone in front of a sellout crowd of 48,101.
But it was Gray, utilizing a fastball that reached 98 mph, and breaking off some nasty sliders, who outpitched Kershaw. Gray, who has emerged as Colorado most dependable starter, pitched 6M innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits. He struck out eight and walked two and improved his record to 9-5.
Kershaw’s line: seven innings, five runs (four earned) on seven hits with no walks and seven strikeouts. His one big mistake was serving up a history-making home run to Charlie Blackmon in the third inning.
Colorado relievers Jairo Diaz, Bryan Shaw and Wade Davis blanked the Dodgers down the stretch, with Davis notching his 12th save. Davis, who had been struggling, struck out Chris Taylor and Russell Martin, hit Joc Pederson, then ended the game by inducing Alex Verdugo to ground out.
Colorado’s three-run sixth inning gave it a 5-3 lead and left Kershaw visibly frustrated. Blackmon reached on an error by second baseman Max Muncy, then scored on an RBI single by Nolan Arenado. A two-run single by Mark Reynolds, who dumped the ball into right field, topped off the rally. Reynolds entered the game with a .167 career batting average vs. Kershaw.
Los Angeles struck quickly in the first and it looked like there would be more chaos at Coors. Alex Verdugo reached on a single and scored on Cody Bellinger’s sharp double to the right field corner. Gray limited the damage by striking out Muncy (0-for-4, three strikeouts) to end the inning.
Colorado took a 2-1 lead in the third on Blackmon’s two-out, tworun homer to right off Kershaw’s curveball. According to Inside Edge, Blackmon became the first left-handed hitter to hit a home run off a Kershaw curveball in a regular-season game. The only other left-handed hitter who has homered on a curve from Kershaw was St. Louis’ Matt Adams in a 2014 National League division series.
L.A. tied the game 2-2 in the fourth with a big assist from Colorado center fielder Ian Desmond. He flat-out dropped Justin Turner’s leadoff flyball, and then Turner scored on Edwin Rios’ triple that caromed off the wall and shot past Desmond.
The Dodgers took a brief 3-2 lead in the fifth inning when Gray issued a leadoff walk to Austin Barnes, who came around to score on singles by Pederson and Verdugo.