ROCKIES HIT 4 1ST INNING HRS, STILL FALL TO DODGERS
L.A. Rallies From 6-Run Deficit
LOS ANGELES, Apr. 26 (AP) - The Colorado Rockies hit four first inning home
runs--and five in all--to help build an large early lead but still succumbed to
the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-9 at Dodger Stadium. All five of the home runs
hit by the Rockies came off Dodgers starter Paul Maholm; Colorado built a 7-1
lead, but squandered all of it by the fourth inning. While exciting, the
game wasn't particularly well-played: the contest included four wild
pitches, a passed ball, two balks and a pair of errors.
Colorado exploded for five first inning runs, all of them courtesy of the long
ball in a display more typical of the Rockies' home ballpark, Coors Field, than
Dodger Stadium. After Brandon Barnes fanned to open the game, Nolan Arenado
gave Colorado the lead with a shot into the left field bleachers. Carlos
Gonzalez struck out but Troy Tulowitzki followed with his second home run of the
season to give the Rockies a 2-0 lead. Wilin Rosario singled and Justin
Morneau launched a two-run homer into the right field pavilion. Drew
Stubbs followed with his first home run of the year and the Rockies held a 5-0
lead.
The Dodgers got a run back in the bottom half of the first when Dee Gordon led
off with a single and eventually scored on Matt Kemp's base hit, but Colorado
added to its lead in the top of the second. Barnes laced a lead-off single
to center and Arenado cracked his second home run of the game. Before the
ball was secured by a fan in the grandstand down the left field line Los Angeles
manager Don Mattingly was on the way to the mound to pull Maholm, who was
charged with seven runs on eight hits. Brian Wilson replaced Maholm on the
mound and got through the inning with the Rockies on top 7-1.
The Dodgers made it clear in the bottom of the second that they weren't packing
it in. Justin Turner and Drew Butera led off the inning with consecutive
base hits off Colorado starter Juan Nicasio and pinch hitter Carl Crawford
followed with a drive to center field that was misplayed by Stubbs for a
two-base error, scoring Turner and sending Butera to third. Gordon's
roller to the left side of the infield finally resulted in the first out of the
inning but Butera scored, making it 7-3, and Crawford advanced to third.
Yasiel Puig ten singled to left, scoring Crawford. Hanley Ramirez grounded
to short, with Puig forced at second for out number two, but Nicasio then balked
the runner into scoring position which allowed him to score when Adrian Gonzalez
singled to center, cutting the deficit to 7-5.
Los Angeles tied the contest in the bottom of the third and ended Nicasio's day
in the process. Andre Ethier and Justin Turner opened the frame with
back-to-back doubles, tying the contest and knocking Nicasio from the box.
He was replaced by Matt Belisle who wild pitched Turner to third before yielding
Butera's two-bagger to left, the third consecutive double for the Dodgers.
Belisle avoided further damage, but the game was now tied at seven.
Colorado took the lead in the top of the fourth when Dodgers reliever Chris
Perez walked Barnes, wild pitched him to second, induced Arenado to ground to
third with the runner holding, and then wild pitched him to third. Carlos
Gonzalez lifted a sacrifice fly to right and the Rockies now led 8-7.
The Dodgers wasted no time regaining the lead. Kemp drew a one-out walk in
the bottom of the fourth, advanced to second on Ethier's base hit and, after
Turner fanned, both runners scored on Butera's second double of the game,
putting Los Angeles on top, 9-8.
After all the scoring of the first four innings, it was remarkable how things
cooled down beginning in the fifth. The only run scored prior to the ninth
was in the bottom of the sixth when Rockies lefty Rex Brothers walked Kemp with
one out and surrendered a base hit to Ethier, putting runners on first and
third. Turner then rolled into a fielder's choice, scoring Kemp to make it
10-8.
The Dodgers fought off a Colorado threat in the top of the seventh.
Rosario singled with one out off Chris Withrow, who was in his third inning of
relief. Morneau flied to right for the second out and Mattingly, sensing
that Withrow was starting to wilt, replaced him with Brandon League as part of a
double switch that brought Juan Uribe into the game to play third. Stubbs
lined a single to left, putting runners on first and second but League then
worked ahead of D.J. LeMahieu 0-2 and induced a grounder to Gordon at second
that should have ended the inning. But the second baseman booted the ball
for an error, filling the bases and bringing Charlie Blackmon to the plate as a
pinch hitter. Mattingly countered with J.P. Howell who fanned Blackmon to
escape the inning.
Los Angeles took the two-run lead into the ninth and Kenley Jansen, still
somewhat fatigued from a heavy workload earlier in the week, entered the game to
close things out. But he immediately surrendered a lead-off single to
Tulowitzki and a passed ball charged to Butera allowed the runner to advance to
second. Jansen then uncorked a wild pitch, allowing Tulowitzki to move to
third. Jansen went to a full count on Rosario but recovered to strike him
out for the first out. Morneau rolled out to Gordon at second, with
Tulowitzki scoring. The Rockies now trailed by only one run but the bases
were clear and they were down to their last out. Stubbs came to the plate
and looped a soft liner to left that Kemp handled to finally close out the game.
It was the third consecutive win for the Dodgers, who hold first place in the
National League West.
4/26/2014, Col14-LAN14, Dodger Stadium 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E LOB DP 2014 Rockies 5 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 9 12 1 7 0 2014 Dodgers 1 4 2 2 0 1 0 0 x 10 12 1 7 0 Rockies AB R H BI AVG Dodgers AB R H BI AVG Barnes,B rf 4 2 1 0 .159 Gordon,D 2b 3 1 1 1 .265 Arenado 3b 4 2 2 3 .304 Puig rf 5 0 1 1 .247 Gonzalez,C lf 4 0 0 1 .255 Ramirez,H ss 4 1 0 0 .257 Tulowitzki ss 5 2 2 1 .436 Gonzalez,Ad 1b 5 0 1 1 .240 Rosario c 4 1 2 0 .272 Kemp cf 3 2 1 1 .246 Morneau 1b 5 1 1 3 .277 Ethier lf 4 2 3 0 .306 Stubbs cf 5 1 2 1 .310 Turner,Ju 3b 4 2 2 2 .263 LeMahieu 2b 4 0 1 0 .194 League p 0 0 0 0 .000 Nicasio p 2 0 0 0 .000 Howell p 0 0 0 0 .000 Belisle p 0 0 0 0 .000 Jansen p 0 0 0 0 .000 Martin,C p 0 0 0 0 .000 Butera c 4 1 3 3 .273 Dickerson,Co ph 1 0 1 0 .333 Maholm p 0 0 0 0 .000 Brothers p 0 0 0 0 .000 Wilson,Br p 0 0 0 0 .000 Blackmon ph 1 0 0 0 .235 Crawford,C ph 0 1 0 0 .397 Ottavino p 0 0 0 0 .000 Perez,C p 1 0 0 0 .000 Logan p 0 0 0 0 .000 Van Slyke ph 1 0 0 0 .323 Kahnle p 0 0 0 0 1.000 Withrow p 0 0 0 0 .000 39 9 12 9 Uribe 3b 1 0 0 0 .407 35 10 12 9 Rockies INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Nicasio 2.0 8 7 5 1 1 51 31 3.95 Belisle L 0-1 1.1 2 2 2 2 0 29 13 12.19 Martin,C BS 1 1.2 1 0 0 0 1 20 16 0.00 Brothers 1.0 1 1 1 1 1 21 10 6.75 Ottavino 1.1 0 0 0 1 1 15 7 2.19 Logan 0.1 0 0 0 0 1 6 3 5.87 Kahnle 0.1 0 0 0 0 0 6 3 2.02 8.0 12 10 8 5 5 148 83 Dodgers INN H R ER BB K PCH STR ERA Maholm 1.0 8 7 7 0 3 38 28 5.68 Wilson,Br 1.0 0 0 0 1 0 22 13 0.00 Perez,C W 1-1 2.0 0 1 1 1 1 29 14 4.63 Withrow H 3 2.2 2 0 0 1 3 37 22 2.93 League 0.0 1 0 0 0 0 4 4 0.90 Howell H 6 1.1 0 0 0 0 2 16 12 3.52 Jansen S 6 1.0 1 1 0 0 1 15 10 3.72 9.0 12 9 8 3 10 161 103 Col: Dickerson,Co batted for Martin,C in the 6th Blackmon batted for Brothers in the 7th LAN: Crawford,C batted for Wilson,Br in the 2nd Van Slyke batted for Perez,C in the 4th Uribe inserted at 3b in the 7th E-Stubbs, Gordon,D. 2B-Ethier(5), Turner,Ju(3), Butera 2(2). 3B-Dickerson,Co(2). HR-Arenado 2(3), Tulowitzki(6), Morneau(1), Stubbs(1). RBI-Arenado 3(20), Gonzalez,C(16), Tulowitzki(18), Morneau 3(7), Stubbs(3), Gordon,D(14), Puig(12), Gonzalez,Ad(16), Kemp(11), Turner,Ju 2(8), Butera 3(6). CS-Gordon,D. K-Barnes,B 2, Arenado, Gonzalez,C 2, Rosario, Morneau, LeMahieu, Nicasio, Blackmon, Puig, Gonzalez,Ad 3, Turner,Ju. BB-Barnes,B, Arenado, Rosario, Gordon,D 2, Ramirez,H, Kemp 2. SF-Gonzalez,C, Crawford,C. PB-Butera. WP-Belisle, Perez,C 2, Jansen. BALK-Nicasio 2. GWRBI: Butera Temperature: 81, Sky: cloudy, Wind: out to center at 10 MPH. Attendance: 53,426 Game Time: 3:21