LOS ANGELES — Carlos Gonzalez made a huge statement Thursday night at soggy Dodger Stadium.
Stuck in a horrific slump, the Rockies’ right fielder unleashed a two-out, three-run homer to right field off closer Yimi Garcia in the ninth inning, stunning the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-4.
CarGo’s special delivery, his first homer since April 25, halted the Rockies’ 11-game losing streak. Nick Hundley and Drew Stubbs set the table with singles off Garcia before Gonzalez homed in on a 2-1 fastball, driving it through the damp night air.
“I can’t really put into words how difficult it’s been for the club and myself,” Gonzalez said. “This is really one of those stretches that you really want to get over with. It finally happened tonight. It took longer than we expected, with all of the rain and all, but we kept grinding.”
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Thursday’s game was delayed for 1 hour, 25 minutes in the sixth inning by torrential rain and wicked lightning. The Rockies were dogged by rain and snow during their last homestand, but bad weather is a rare event at Dodger Stadium. Indeed, the Dodgers are in the midst of a team-record streak of 1,231 games without a rainout. The most recent of the 17 rainouts since Dodger Stadium opened in 1962 occurred April 17, 2000.
Closer John Axford closed the door in the ninth — allowing only a walk to the dangerous Adrian Gonzalez — to record his fourth save.
The Rockies had not won a game since April 27 at Arizona and seemed in danger of setting a record for franchise futility — but CarGo’s homer changed that. He entered the game hitting .188 and was 0-for-2 with two walks before hitting his third homer of the season.
Bench coach Tom Runnells, the acting manager as Walt Weiss recovers from his operation on Wednesday to have his appendix removed, hopes the home run is the sign of a turnaround for CarGo.
“He had a couple of real good at bats yesterday night at Anaheim — lined the ball out hard,” Runnells said. “He has shown some signs, but it’s funny with hitters like (him). Hopefully this is something that relaxes him and gets that confidence back a little bit.”
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The longest losing streak in franchise history happened in 1993, the Rockies’ inaugural season, when they lost 13 consecutive games from July 25 through Aug. 6. At least the Rockies are no longer chasing that dubious achievement.
“We don’t want everybody to write about how bad we are playing,” Gonzalez said. “We want to turn things around, because I believe that we have really good professional players on this club. We can play better than what we were playing.”
The National League West-leading Dodgers, who had defeated the Rockies eight times in a row coming in, wasted no time jumping on right-hander Chad Bettis, who was making his 2015 debut. In the first inning, Jimmy Rollins doubled, Howie Kendrick singled and Gonzalez doubled them both home. Gonzalez finished the night 2-for-3 and is now hitting .367.
A leadoff homer in the second inning by Wilin Rosario off former Rockie Brett Anderson sliced Los Angeles’ lead to 2-1, but the Dodgers rebounded in their next at-bat, Andre Ethier doubling and Anderson scoring him with another double to make it 4-1. It was Anderson’s first hit of the season.
Bettis allowed four run on seven hits, walked four and struck out three in his five innings. He threw 106 pitches, 63 for strikes.
“I thought Chad did a good job for us, grinding out five innings,” Runnells said.
Anderson, who threw a five-inning complete game at Coors Field last Friday in L.A.’s rain-shortened 2-1 victory, allowed two runs and five hits in 5 innings Thursday. He struck out eight.
Colorado scratched out a run after play resumed in the sixth as Gonzalez scored from third when Dodgers shortstop Jimmy Rollins mishandled a hot grounder by Rosario.
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or
