Dodgers Can't Keep Up with the Rockies

Down 2-0 to the Rockies, the Dodgers came back to tie the game. Down 5-2, the Dodgers managed to get to within a run. But the last two runs given up by former closer Jonathan Broxton in the top of the seventh inning were the ones that ultimately broke the camels’ back as the Rockies bruised the Dodgers 7-5.

And it was a particularly bad outing by Broxton who couldn’t find the strike zone. After walking Eric Young, Jr. who went to second on Dexter Fowler’s groundout to second, Broxton intentionally walked Carlos Gonzalez. During Troy Tulowitzki’s at-bat, Broxton got Young stealing at third base for the second out then proceeded to walk Tulowitzki. Singles by Todd Helton and Melvin Mora brought the two runners home and ended Broxton’s night giving the Rockies the 7-4 lead.

“He just appears unsure of himself,” manager Joe Torre said. “This is just something he’s going to have to fight his way through. We’ve talked about it with him, and he understands it.

“When it comes time to let the ball go, he’s trying to overthrow it a lot of the time.”

Despite the three-run deficit the Dodgers had a prime chance to respond in the bottom half of the inning by taking the lead. After Jimenez got the first out of the inning, the Dodgers worked the bases loaded off of Matt Reynolds on two singles and a walk. The Rockies brought in Matt Belisle who struck out Casey Blake and got Matt Kemp to ground out to the shortstop to end the threat.

Yet again in the bottom of the ninth off of closer Huston Street the Dodgers were knocking the door. Three singles brought home a run with two outs and Matt Kemp representing the winning run in the batter’s box. On a 2-2 count, Street got Kemp to whiff at a… take a guess. If you said a slider down and away, you’ve been paying attention all season.

All of this obscured the fact that the starters Ubaldo Jimenez and Hiroki Kuroda did not have good games.

Kuroda fell victim right away in the first inning when Tulowitzki hit a two-run homer to the former Mannywood seats for the quick 2-0 lead.

The Dodgers tied the game in the second inning when after Jay Gibbons led off with a single Kemp tripled him home. AJ Ellis, who went 3-for-4 with two RBI and two doubles, singled home Kemp to tie the game 2-2.

“It’s hard enough worrying about and maintaining your own swing before you start worrying about who you’re facing,” Ellis said on facing an ace like Jimenez for the first time. “His stuff is, wow, top notch.”

The Rockies tinkered away on Kuroda in the fourth inning plating three runs for the 5-2 lead thanks to five singles, four of which were consecutive, and the Dodgers dinked back to within one run with an RBI double by Ellis in the fourth inning and a ground out by Gibbons in the fifth.