If ever a team needed somebody to don a cape and leap tall buildings in a single bound, it was the Rockies on Friday night at Coors Field.
Guess who played Superman?
None other than 39-year-old Todd Helton, who entered the game hitting only .219. He jacked a two-run, ninth-inning, pinch-hit homer into the second deck off Dodgers reliever Brandon League to tie the score 5-5. It was Helton’s fourth home run of the season and his second via a pinch hit.
Alas, the Rockies were playing with Kryptonite in May. They fell to the Dodgers 7-5 in 10 innings, losing for the sixth time in their last seven games. The Dodgers scored two runs off closer Rafael Betancourt in the top of the 10th. Carl Crawford scored from third on Luis Cruz’s shot up the middle that bounced off Betancourt’s back leg and dribbled toward third base. Juan Uribe followed with a game-winning, run-scoring single.
“You get punched in the gut when you compete and play in tight games, and we have played in a lot of tight games this year,” Rockies manager Walt Weiss said. “Sometimes the reward for competing like that is getting punched in the gut.”
The bitter loss marked the second time in the Rockies’ current slump in which they failed to cash in on late-game heroics. Last Saturday in San Francisco, Troy Tulowitzki hit a 10th-inning solo homer to put the Rockies in front, but they lost 10-9 when the Giants’ Angel Pagan hit a two-run, inside-the-park, walk-off homer off Betancourt.
Friday’s game began as a mismatch between Dodgers star lefty Clayton Kershaw and Rockies right-hander Jon Garland. Kershaw, the 2011 National League Cy Young Award winner, came into the game with a 1.68 ERA. Garland, pitching to prove he still belongs in the rotation, entered with a 5.53 ERA.
Kershaw was far from perfect, allowing three runs and eight hits in seven innings, but it was enough to give the Dodgers a 5-3 leading heading into the ninth inning.
Kershaw’s defining moment arrived in the seventh. He issued a one-out walk to Nolan Arenado and gave up a double to DJ LeMahieu. Off the Rockies’ bench came the dangerous Carlos Gonzalez to pinch-hit. Kershaw struck him out on three pitches, then induced a groundball out by Eric Young Jr. End of minor crisis.
Garland did nothing positive to shore up his shaky spot in the starting five. After two crisp innings that included five groundball outs, he came apart and was gone after five innings, giving up five runs and seven hits. “Right now I just feel like I am bad, to be honest with you,” said Garland, who walked three and threw 93 pitches.
The signature moment of Garland’s outing came in the fourth inning. With two outs and Scott Van Slyke perched at second base after a leadoff double, Garland intentionally walked Uribe to pitch to Kershaw. The ace of the Dodgers promptly poked a two-run double to left-center, giving his team a 5-0 lead.
Asked about Helton’s pinch-hit homer, Weiss said: “He’s had to grind through some things like everybody else this year. But I don’t ever doubt his ability to give a good at-bat.”
LOOKING AHEAD: LOS ANGELES AT COLORADO
Dodgers’ Zack Greinke (2-1, 4.38 ERA) vs. Rockies’ Jhoulys Chacin (3-3, 3.90),
2:10 p.m. Saturday, ROOT, 850 AM
Right-hander Zack Greinke, who signed a six-year, $147 million contract with the Dodgers as a free agent, is still not right. Injured during a mid-April brawl that left him with a broken collarbone, he’s still scraping off rust. He failed to pitch five innings for the second consecutive start Monday, allowing six runs (four earned) over four-plus innings against the Angels. Greinke hasn’t been sharp since coming off the disabled list May 15. The Dodgers are hoping that he improves as the season goes on. Greinke last faced the Rockies on Sept. 13, 2011, as a member of the Brewers — tossing five innings of one-run ball, allowing five hits and striking out nine. In six career games against the Rockies (five starts), he is 1-1 with a 4.88 ERA. Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
Upcoming Pitching Matchups
Sunday: Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu (6-2, 2.89 ERA) at Rockies’ Jorge De La Rosa (6-3, 3.16), 2:10 p.m., ROOT
Monday: Rockies’ Tyler Chatwood (3-0, 2.12) at Reds’ Bronson Arroyo (5-5, 3.75), 5:10 p.m., ROOT
Tuesday: Rockies’ Juan Nicasio (4-2, 4.79) at Reds’ Homer Bailey (3-4, 3.84), 5:10 p.m., ROOT
Wednesday: Rockies’ Jon Garland (3-6, 5.81) at Reds’ Johnny Cueto (3-0, 2.17), 5:10 p.m., ROOT
