Rockies go quietly in Los Angeles, lose third straight 6-1

A critical road trip within the division got off to an inauspicious start for the Rockies on Friday night, as they lost 6-1 to the Dodgers in Los Angeles. Kyle Freeland went six innings and gave up five runs, which would ordinarily have been enough to keep Colorado in the game. On this night, however, the struggling offense was held to just three hits; all of which came in the first two innings.

The Rockies immediately had a scoring opportunity in the top of the first inning when Charlie Blackmon led off with a single to right and DJ LeMahieu walked on four pitches. With two on and nobody out the Rockies failed to get a hit.

The Dodgers got a run in the bottom of the first on a deep Cody Bellinger sacrifice fly, but Freeland got out of a bases-loaded jam to limit the damage.

The speed of Raimel Tapia got the Rockies a run in the second. He beat the throw to first on a potential double-play ball, then scored from first, Ken Griffey Jr. style, on Tom Murphy’s double to left field to make the score 1-1.

In the bottom of the inning, Tapia almost cut down Austin Barnes at the plate from right field, but his throw short-hopped catcher Tom Murphy, who couldn’t handle the ball. An out on that play would have ended the inning with the score still 1-1. Instead, it was 4-1 after a Justin Turner single and a double by Bellinger.

That margin would prove to be more than enough for LA starter Alex Wood and his bullpen, who didn’t allow another hit the rest of the way. The Dodgers tacked on two insurance runs in the fourth and eighth innings on a Yasiel Puig homer and a Logan Forsythe sac fly.

It was an all too familiar west coast road outing for the Rockies offense, and they won’t get any relief tomorrow when the Dodgers give the ball to Clayton Kershaw. Tyler Chatwood will have to work some of his road magic if he wants to keep pace with one of the league’s best pitchers and snap Colorado’s three game losing streak. The game starts at 8:10 MDT.