The Colorado Rockies lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers Friday night 11-8, in the first game of a three-game weekend set between the National League West rivals.
Starting pitcher Tyler Anderson struggled out of the gate for Colorado as he surrendered a triple to Chris Taylor, who then scored on a sacrifice fly hit by Justin Turner to plate the first run of the ballgame for Los Angeles. Still rattled on the mound, Anderson later lobbed a 1-1 cutter to Matt Kemp that he launched to the bleachers in left field for a towering home run.
Colorado got a run back in the bottom half of the first inning which started with a triple of their own from D.J. LeMahieu, who was playing in his first game since returning from the disabled list after dealing with a left thumb sprain. LeMahieu wound up tallying four hits on the night which tied his career high for hits in a game. Later in the inning, Carlos Gonzalez also hit a triple down the right-field line to score LeMahieu and put the Rockies on the scoreboard.
Anderson buckled down in the next inning, and Colorado provided him a two-run cushion following their next turn of at-bats. Catcher Chris Iannetta hit a two-out double to left field which was then followed by Anderson getting hit by a pitch to give the Rockies two base runners. LeMahieu then drove Iannetta home with his second hit of the night, this time a single to center field. Charlie Blackmon followed by doing his best to emulate LeMahieu’s performance, ripping a triple of his own to right field which scored two runs to give Colorado a 4-2 lead.
Anderson again was able to lock things down in the third inning, as did the Dodgers. However, despite working two consecutive clean innings, Anderson crumbled in the fourth inning when he surrendered a single to Logan Forsythe and back-to-back infield singles. From there, pitcher Dennis Santana burned Anderson by knocking a double to deep left field, scoring two runs and tying the game at four runs apiece. Taylor then scored an additional run by hitting a sacrifice fly which put Los Angeles back on-top 5-4.
Colorado again answered, though, in the bottom half of the inning when LeMahieu hit another single to score Iannetta, who reached base via a walk which knotted the game up at 5-5.
Anderson worked a clean fifth inning to keep the score at a deadlock but also ending his evening on the mound. Anderson was hot and cold throughout his start and finished with a line of five innings pitched, allowing five runs on seven hits while walking three batters and striking out four.
The Rockies again took the lead in the bottom half of the fifth inning, which began with Nolan Arenado getting on base via an infield single. After back-to-back strikeouts from Gonzalez and Trevor Story, Gerardo Parra hit a single to right field, scoring Arenado and putting the Rockies ahead 6-5.
Colorado’s pitching woes extended to the bullpen as Brooks Pounders was unable to preserve the lead in relief of Anderson. Pounders got pounded on the mound from the get-go, surrendering a single to Yasiel Puig who which was followed by a walk issued to Breyvic Valera. Taylor then hit a three-run home run to right field to reestablish a now 8-6 advantage for the boys in blue. The Dodgers scored an additional run in the inning off of Scott Oberg who allowed a run via a sacrifice fly, making the score 9-6.
After a clean sixth inning, Arenado did his best to help Colorado claw back into the ballgame by hitting a solo home run to left field in the seventh to cut the deficit to two runs.
That said, Puig put the icing on the cake for the Dodgers by belting a two-run home run to dead center field which put Los Angeles ahead 11-7. The Rockies scored a run in the bottom of the ninth inning and managed to bring the tying run to the plate; however, Ian Desmond was unable to come through and wound up losing the opening game of the series.
The Rockies and Dodgers will continue their series Saturday night at Coors Field with first pitch set for 5:15 p.m. MT. Colorado falls to 30-27, just a half game ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks for first in the NL West.
