LOS ANGELES—The Dodgers didn’t offer up much of a challenge against Ubaldo Jimenez.
After scoring 23 runs in their previous three wins, the Dodgers’ four hits—all singles—tied a season low in a 3-0 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday night.
Jimenez won for the first time this season and the Rockies ended their three-game losing skid.
“We’re definitely going to tip our hat to Ubaldo,” Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said, “but still we got to give him a little better fight than that and give ourselves some chances to score.”
Jimenez (1-5) struck out seven and walked none for the first time this season in his 10th start. He retired 14 in a row en route to his third career shutout, and first since May 31, 2010, at San Francisco.
“It’s a little surprising, but sometimes it happens that way,” Matt Kemp said about Jimenez’s 0-5 record coming into Dodger Stadium.
Sluggers Andre Ethier and Kemp were a combined 1 for 8, with Kemp striking out to end the game.
“He had us off-stride all night,” Mattingly said.
Jon Garland (1-5) gave up five hits and three runs in six innings, struck out two and walked one. The right-hander has lost six of his last seven starts, with his lone victory coming on April 20 against Atlanta.
“I felt like I was keeping it down better, for the most part,” Garland said. “I feel like I could have mixed in a few more off-speed pitches early in the game because it looked like they were coming out swinging. They got a guy on and moved him over. And when you run into a buzzsaw like Ubaldo was, that’s always tough.”
After scoring a total of six runs in their previous three losses, the Rockies needed just three runs to end their frustration.
Todd Helton homered into the lower right-field seats to lead off the seventh inning, extending Colorado’s lead to 3-0.
The Rockies got sacrifice flies from Jose Morales in the second and Carlos Gonzalez in the third.
NOTES: Colorado 3B Ty Wigginton extended his season-best hitting streak to nine games and is batting .344 during the streak, which began on May 24. … The Dodgers were shut out for the fifth time this season. … The Rockies snapped their six-game road losing streak to NL West opponents. … The Dodgers’ season high-tying three-game winning streak ended. … Green Bay Packers linebacker and former USC star Clay Matthews attended the game on the first bobblehead night for Mattingly.
