LOS ANGELES— Nail-biting pitchers’ duels are commonplace at Dodger Stadium. Rockies victories in such duels are not. So there was an extra dose of satisfaction in their 1-0 win over Los Angeles Wednesday night, especially after losing 4-3 in walk-off fashion the night before.
Starter Chris Rusin was brilliant, helping the Rockies clinch the three-game series, their first series victory since sweeping the Mets in Denver from May 13-15.
“I was able to keep the ball down, keep them off-balance and keep it in the ballpark,” said Rusin, who snapped a career-long four-game losing streak and lowered his ERA to 4.12.
Wednesday marked the Rockies’ fourth 1-0 win over the Dodgers in franchise history, the third at Dodger Stadium. And Colorado won a series at Dodger Stadium for the first time since May 25-27, 2014. So for the struggling Rockies, it was a big deal.
“We had to really fight for it, and you usually do on the road,” manager Walt Weiss said. “Any time you win a series on the road in your division it’s really important. So it’s a big win, it ranks up there.”
Talented Dodgers right-hander Kenta Maeda almost matched Rusin — almost. Colorado finally solved the Maeda puzzle in the seventh. Gerardo Parra hit an opposite-field double to left and scored on Daniel Descalso’s two-out single to center. Maeda was charged with just five hits and he struck out nine.
“Danny does a little bit of everything for us … and always gives you good at-bats,” Weiss said. “He’s such a pro and such a leader on this team, for good reason.”
Rusin, quick-pitching the Dodgers from time to time to keep them off-balance, was at his best. The veteran left-hander mixed and matched his 90-mph fastball with a mid-80s cutter and an 80-mph changeup. He pitched six scoreless innings, allowing three hits, striking out three and walking one. He had 11 groundball outs vs. only five flyball outs.
He was backed up by stellar bullpen work, including a redemptive eighth inning from Carlos Estevez. It was Estevez who gave up the walk-off homer to Trayce Thompson on Tuesday night, but Estevez struck out three Dodgers on Wednesday. Jake McGee closed out the game to get his 15th save.
“He’s our eighth-inning guy,” Weiss said of Estevez. “He’s been really good, and you don’t give up on a guy because he gives up one home run. … It was a tough inning tonight, but he got it done. Talk about growth for a young pitcher, to come back after giving up a homer and pitch like that the next night.”
Estevez, 23, wore a wide smile on his face in the visitor’s clubhouse.
“I really wanted to get back out there, so it was awesome that they showed so much faith in me,” he said.
Rusin stoutly fought through a bizarre fifth inning. He gave up a one-out hit to A.J. Ellis and a walk to Austin Barnes. Then Maeda put down a soft sacrifice along the third baseline, which Nolan Arenado fielded with ease. But, inexplicably, both second baseman DJ LeMahieu and first baseman Daniel Descalso were covering the first-base bag. LeMahieu caught the throw, but his foot was off the bag — and he was charged with the error. That loaded the bases with one out.
Faced with his only crisis of the night, Rusin struck out Kike Hernandez and got Justin Turner to ground out to Arenado, ending the inning.
“To get out of that jam was a Houdini act,” Weiss said. “I don’t know how he did it. We messed up the bunt coverage there, and that inning could have gone south in a hurry, but Rusin picked us up there. It was a big-time performance.”
Maeda turned Rockies hitters into pretzels, striking out five in the first three innings. The right-hander whiffed No. 3 hitter Carlos Gonzalez three times, and reliever Casey Fien also struck out Gonzalez. Over the past two games, Gonzalez has struck out eight times — four times with runners in scoring position. That ugly statistic included the sixth inning Wednesday night with Charlie Blackmon perched on second after hitting a double.
Gonzalez set a dubious record by becoming the first Rockies player to ever to fan 10 times in any series, and also is the first Colorado hitter to strike out four times in consecutive games. Over his past five games, Gonzalez has whiffed 13 times.
Asked if he was concerned about all the swings and misses, Weiss bluntly said: “The last couple of games, he’s had a couple of tough nights. But no, I’m not concerned about it.”
All told, Colorado struck out 10 times Wednesday night, that after whiffing a season-high 15 times Tuesday, which was their most since Dodgers pitchers fanned 18 Rockies over 16 innings in September at Dodger Stadium.
Colorado was scheduled to return home in the wee hours Thursday and then host Pittsburgh in a makeup game at 3:10 p.m. at Coors Field.
