Todd Helton made no attempt to hide his disgust.
“Frustrating? No, it’s fun,” said Helton, but with obvious sarcasm.
Helton had every right to be upset. As the Rockies’ clubhouse door opened Monday night, reporters became rubberneckers, half expecting to see insurance slips and crumpled fenders on the floor from the offense’s latest pileup.
Clues to understanding the Rockies’ 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 11 innings were scattered everywhere.
Colorado squandered opportunities in the fourth, fifth – painfully missing two chances with bases loaded – seventh and finally eighth, when a failed sacrifice bunt left Brad Hawpe lonely as a spare tire standing on second base.
“It should just heighten our awareness of how important it is to do the little things if we want to close out games,” Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said.
The postgame pyrotechnics, terrific as always, mocked the Rockies. There was a time when they didn’t need fireworks to pack Coors Field as they did Monday with the season’s largest announced crowd of 48,538. In the 1990s, they brought their bats and launched bottle rockets over the outfield walls.
They went scoreless Monday for the final five innings, homerless for all 11. They finished 1-for- 12 with runners in scoring position, lowering their season average to .261 in the game’s most critical at-bats.
“We are just not playing the game,” said Helton, who went 1-for-3.
It was strangely fascinating watching the final innings play out, akin to kids in a pillow fight unable to knock each other out. The Rockies’ amiss – or swing and miss – offense ultimately left an exhausted bullpen vulnerable.
Knowing that Dan Miceli was unavailable after working four of the previous five games, Jay Witasick told Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca he could go. Witasick ended up losing on a night when the Rockies would have preferred to rest him.
He opened the 11th by allowing a leadoff single to Jason Grabow- ski. With two outs, Oscar Robles stepped into the box, starting in place of injured shortstop Cesar Izturis. Robles roped a single into right field, scoring the winning run, a hit made more remarkable because it was his fifth of the night. He entered the game with just 13.
“I’m trying to remember … maybe in Little League I had (five hits),” Robles said. “I’m just trying to replace one of the best shortstops in the game right now and doing whatever I can.”
Robles spoiled 1 2/3 solid outings by reliever Marcos Carvajal – three strikeouts and a rally- squashing double-play ball. Starter Byung-Hyun Kim’s future is uncertain, with Hurdle not interested in using him in the bullpen and no spot available in the rotation. Kim, however, strengthened the argument to find compromise even if Shawn Chacon proves healthy, working six shutout innings.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Kim, who owns a 2.41 ERA in five Coors Field starts this season. “That’s not up to me.”
Neither team featured lineups envisioned on opening day, both ravaged by injuries. The Dodgers ran out Jeff Kent as their only established star. That explains why he reacted so angrily when Kim hit him in the back in the first inning one night after three Dodgers were plunked by the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Kent took exception and strode toward Kim, pointing his bat. Catcher Danny Ardoin intervened as the benches and bullpens spilled onto the field.
“I don’t care. I couldn’t hear anything he was saying,” Kim said. “I just wish we had won.”
Rockies recap
Aaron Miles still doesn’t walk – he has two free passes this season – leaving him miscast as a leadoff hitter. But from the second spot, he’s starting to warm up.
Miles, who has struggled on the road, where he is hitting .197, singled home a run Monday in his first at-bat against the Dodgers, doubled in the fifth and singled in the seventh.
“I think I fit well in that spot,” said Miles, hitting .317 as the lineup’s No. 2 hitter.
CHACON EAGER FOR RETURN: His haircut was accidentally symbolic. Shawn Chacon buzzed off his goatee, leaving him clean-shaven, ready for a fresh start Wednesday.
“I am really excited not to be pitching in Triple-A anymore,” said Chacon (1-4, 3.83 ERA), out since June 4 with a strained left hamstring. “What’s done is done. I am healthy and ready to pick up where I left off.”
DEJEAN SET FOR THURSDAY: Working through stiffness in his shoulder, reliever Mike DeJean will throw a simulated game today and likely will be activated Thursday.
Staff writer Troy E. Renck can be reached at 303-820-5457 or trenck@denverpost.com.
