LOS ANGELES — So much for sprinting out of the gate. Stumbling is more like it.
Slowed by terrible pitching and anemic bats, the Rockies lost 14-2 to the sizzling Dodgers and grand-slammer Matt Kemp this afternoon. It was the Rockies’ sixth loss in seven games. For a team whose stated offseason goal was a fast start, it’s an ugly beginning.
Sure, it’s early, but after 11 games, the 2009 Rockies stand exactly where the 2008 Rockies stood: 4-7 and five games out of first place in the National League West.
En route to their eighth straight victory and three-game sweep of the Rockies, the division-leading Dodgers feasted on Rockies starter Ubaldo Jimenez. Departing after 4-1/3 innings, Jimenez was charged with seven runs on seven hits. He was wild from the get-go, walking four, including Los Angeles’ first hitter, Rafael Furcal. He quickly scored on Orlando Hudson’s double.
Of Jimenez’s 100 total pitches, 41 were outside the strike zone.
In the fifth, Jimenez left the bases full for reliever Matt Belisle, who promptly offered up a fat 2-0 pitch to Kemp. The Dodgers’ center fielder — hitting .383 and riding a 13-game hitting streak — deposited the ball into the right-field bleachers for the second grand slam of his career. Kemp added a solo blast to right center off Huston Street in the eighth, giving Kemp a five-RBI day.
Kemp’s slam but the Dodgers in front 8-0 and they kept piling on.
Casey Blake doubled off Belisle and scored when relief pitcher Scott Elbert laced another double. Elbert scored on a single by Orlando Hudson. Enter Rockies reliever Glendon Rusch, who served up a run-scoring single to Andre Ethier. By the time the fifth inning ended, the Dodgers led 11-0.
The Rockies saved some face in the sixth, getting solo home runs from Brad Hawpe and Chris Iannetta off Elbert. It was just the second hit of the season for Iannetta, his first since hitting a solo homer in the season opener in Arizona. Hawpe’s home run was his 18th career homer vs. the Dodgers, by far his most against any team. He’s hit nine against the Diamondbacks.
Facing Dodgers rookie right-hander James McDonald for the first time, the Rockies couldn’t get a bead on him. Though he threw 96 pitches in just 4-1/3 innings, McDonald kept the Rockies off balance with a mid-90s fastball and big curve. He allowed no runs and four hits.
The Rockies open a three-game series Monday night in Phoenix against the Diamondbacks.
Patrick Saunders: 303-954-1428 or psaunders@denverpost.com
