It’s a quirk of the schedule that has the Dodgers playing four games with the last-place Rockies in between two crucial series with the archrival Padres.
Colorado has the worst record in baseball and will finish last in the division for a fourth straight year. The Padres are the last team standing between the Dodgers and their 12th division title in 13 seasons. The Dodgers swept them last weekend at home and will play them again next weekend in San Diego.
Yet Dodgers manager Dave Roberts insisted there would be no overlooking the lowly Rockies and no looking ahead to the Padres’ series.
“Where we’re at, mid-to-late August, all these games matter,” he said before Monday’s game. “So I don’t expect a letdown.”
“We’ve got work to do here,” he continued. “We are in control of things, but we’ve got to focus on right now.”
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That focus was at best a little fuzzy in the series opener, with the Dodgers twice blowing leads in a 4-3 loss at Coors Field. The winning run scored with one out in the ninth inning when Warming Bernabel singled off reliever Justin Wrobleski (4-5) to drive in Ezequiel Tovar.
Tovar was on second after a gift double dropped between second baseman Alex Freeland and right fielder Teoscar Hernández with one out in the ninth. Three pitches later Bernabel bounced a single up the middle and Tovar bounced home with the winning run.
The victory was the Rockies’ first in seven games against the Dodgers this season and first in 11 games dating to last year, which came as a disappointment to the hundreds of fans who came out in crisp white Dodgers jerseys to see Shohei Ohtani play. And Ohtani, who came into the series hitting .391 with six homers, 17 RBIs and 17 runs in 17 games at Coors Field, didn’t disappoint, singling on the second pitch of the game from left-hander Kyle Freeland.
He knocked in his team’s second run on another single in the second inning, spinning Freeland around with a wicked shot back through the box. The Dodgers’ first run had scored two pitches earlier on a Dalton Rushing sacrifice fly that Mickey Moniak caught with a leap at the wall in right-center.
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The Rockies got both runs back off Yoshinobu Yamamoto in the third. After retiring the first six batters, Yamamoto, pitching a day after his 27th birthday, walked third baseman Kyle Karros, the son of former Dodger star Eric Karros. Brenton Doyle followed with a single and continued to second on a throw to third that was too late to get Karros. Ryan Ritter then drove in both runners with a soft liner to right.
Freeland lasted just four innings, leaving with what appeared to be a blister on his left hand after giving up six hits and a walk but stranding four runners. Two innings later the Dodgers went ahead against reliever Jaden Hill, with Freddie Freeman opening the sixth with a walk, stealing second and scoring on a two-out double from pinch-hitter Alex Freeland.
Yamamoto, who matched a season high with seven innings pitched, failed to hold the lead again when Tovar evened the score with a solo homer one out into his last inning of work.
Roberts then turned the game over to his bullpen, which has rarely proved a wise decision. After Edgardo Henriquez worked a perfect eighth, the Rockies walked it off after just three batters.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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