Dodgers walk the line, not over it in 7-6 loss to Rockies
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The Dodgers were hoping for a walkover, but it wasn’t to be.
The Rockies issued six walks Sunday, and it still wasn’t enough. The Dodgers’ five-game winning streak snapped with a 7-6 loss to Colorado.
In another hot afternoon game, the Rockies scored five times in the first against 21-year-old Nathan Eovaldi and made it hold up.
Eovaldi, who may have only one more start as the Dodgers seek to preserve the rookie’s arm, threw less than five innings for the first time in his five career starts.
This time Eovaldi (1-2) went four innings, allowing the five runs on six hits and a pair of walks.
Jhoulys Chacin, who entered the game with a career 1.98 ERA against the Dodgers, was hardly as sharp as the Dodgers have seen him, but he made the early support hold up to raise his record to 11-10.
The Rockies scored all five of their runs in the first inning. Troy Tulowitzki singled in the first run, and then with the bases loaded, Kevin Kouzmanoff’s blooper fell off the wrist of an awkwardly diving Trent Oeltjen in right to clear the bases.
Oeltjen started in right for Andre Ethier, after he complained of knee pain in a Sunday column by The Times’ T.J. Simers.
Eliezer Alfonzo singled in Kouzmanoff for the fifth run.
The Dodgers scored single runs in the first on a Justin Sellers double and in the third on doubles by Sellers and James Loney.
The Rockies got the two back against Blake Hawksworth in the fifth on doubles by Carlos Gonzales and Seth Smith, and then a single by Kouzmanoff.
The Dodgers scored twice in the sixth without benefit of a hit or an error -- after Chacin walked the bases loaded -- on a groundout and sacrifice fly. They added two more in the seventh after Matt Kemp walked, stole his 34th base and scored on an Aaron Miles double. Oeltjen singled in Miles, but the Dodgers were left one run short.
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-- Steve Dilbeck