Rockies offense is absent in 4-0 loss to Dodgers

The worst part of the night was when Tyler Chatwood walked Clayton Kershaw on four pitches with the bases load. That made it 4-0 in favor of the Dodgers in the third inning, and that ended up being the final score.

That worst part was also representative of the night on the whole. Chatwood struggled with command all night. He walked eight batters in 3¹⁄₃ innings, during which he also allowed four runs off of three hits and three strikeouts. Just 41 of Chatwood’s 88 pitches landed for strikes. It wasn’t pretty.

Meanwhile, Kershaw mowed down the Rockies offense without any trouble. The only positive was that Kershaw only stuck around for six innings. In those six innings, Kershaw allowed four hits and no runs. He walked one batter and struck out eight.

The Dodgers’ first run came in the second. With one out in the inning, Chatwood walked Logan Forsythe and Yasiel Puig back-to-back. Forsythe came around to score after Enrique Hernández singled to left field. That made it 1-0 Dodgers.

Los Angeles added to their lead in the third inning. Joc Pederson led off with a blast of a homer to straight-away center field to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead. Chatwood then walked Justin Turner, and while he got Cody Bellinger to fly out, Yasmani Grandal singled to right field. Raimel Tapia misplayed the ball, and it allowed Turner to score from first base. Chatwood got Forsythe to fly out for the second out of the inning, but then he walked three consecutive batters to force one in and make it 4-0. D.J. LeMahieu ended the inning and minimized the damage with an excellent play up the middle.

Chatwood came back out for the fourth. He walked a batter, his eighth of the night, before recording an out. Bud Black removed him from the game after that and brought in Chris Rusin.

Rusin only allowed a hit and two walks in 2²⁄₃ innings. Scott Oberg and Mike Dunn each pitched a scoreless inning. But the Rockies offense was absent, even without Kershaw in the game. Despite the good work from the bullpen, the game ended 4-0.

The loss makes it four in a row for the Rockies—the longest losing streak of the season for the Rockies. Though the mini-streak has come after the team won six consecutive games, so they’re still 6-4 in their last ten games. The Rockies will try to avoid the sweep Sunday afternoon. Brandon McCarthy will start for the Dodgers, and Tyler Anderson will get the ball for the Rockies. It will be Anderson’s first start since May 30. Game time is 2:10 MT.