DENVER — The Dodgers found themselves in an unfamiliar place Saturday night.
For the first time in almost a week, the other team had the lead.
After entering play with not only four straight wins, but essentially four consecutive wire-to-wire victories (their only other time trailing recently came briefly in the top of the first inning Tuesday), theDodgers once again had early controlat Coors Field against the Rockies.
But this time, in a 4-3 loss, they failed to stay in front –– in large part, because they couldn’t pull away.
Technically, the game flipped in the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Rockies (8-13) turned a one-run deficit into a one-run lead on Troy Johnston’s two-run double against Dodgers reliever Will Klein; who replaced Emmet Sheehan after his five-inning, two-run start.
The real culprit, though, was the Dodgers’ inopportunistic offense, which couldn’t maintain momentum after getting out of the gates quickly.
The club had two runs two pitches into the contest, afterShohei Ohtani reachedon an error and Kyle Tucker drove a two-run blast to right field. They tacked on another in the third, when backup catcher Dalton Rushing hit what was already his fifth home run of the season, despite starting for only the sixth time.
From there, however, the Dodgers (15-5) started squandering chances. They left two runners on in the third. They came up empty after a Freddie Freeman triple in the sixth. They watched Alex Call get picked off to end the seventh. Then, they missed their biggest opportunities in the final two innings.
In the eighth, they left the bases loaded on an inning-ending grounder from Max Muncy.
In the ninth, they got back-to-back two-out hits from Will Smith (who was pinch-hitting) and Ohtani (extending his on-base streak to 50 games), only for Tucker to end his three-hit night with a game-ending flyout.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
