What do you know? The once-stampeding Dodgers have been caged by the Colorado Rockies.
In a 9-6 loss Sunday at Coors Field, the two-time defending World Series champs lost their second consecutive game to their plucky hosts. The Dodgers again couldn’t hold a lead or keep up offensively at the hitter-friendly park, though they put some pressure on in the ninth inning.
After Shohei Ohtani led off the ninth with a ground-rule double, the Dodgers scored twice to cut the lead to three runs. They had runners on second and third and Ryan Ward at the plate with two out in his first game in the majors. But right fielder Troy Johnston robbed Ward of his chance to chip away at the deficit further, diving to catch his line drive to end the game.
Before that, the Rockies chased starter Roki Sasaki from the game in the fifth inning and then ruffled the Dodgers’ relievers. That included closer Edwin Diaz, who came on in the eighth inning to pitch for the first time in nine days and promptly gave up three singles, a walk and two runs.
He and Blake Treinen combined to face eight batters without getting an out.
Now, after arriving in Denver without having lost a game to a National League opponent, the Dodgers (15-6) are in danger of losing their four-game series against an NL club that is 9-13 and hasn’t made the postseason since 2018.
It’s well below the bar the Dodgers have set, and it added a bitter note to Ward’s otherwise sweet big league debut.
Ward punched a big league clock for the first time wearing No. 67 and cranked his first big-league hit off Rockies starter Michael Lorenzen in the fourth inning.
Ward lined a changeup to right field for a single that scored Andy Pages, made it 3-0, and got the 20-some members of Ward’s party up, jumping in place, hugging and high-fiving.
He also singled in the sixth, sending Antonio Senzatela’s 96-mph sinker into center field. That advanced Alex Call, who scored to make it 4-3 after Kim’s fielder’s choice and another RBI single by Alex Freeland.
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In his first at-bat, Ward flew out to lead off the third inning, when the Dodgers gave Sasaki a 2-0 lead to work with. Freeland drove in Hyeseong Kim and Ohtani doubled in Freeland — while extending his career-best on-base streak to 51 games, moving past Willie Keeler into third place in Dodgers’ history.
But to start the fifth, Sasaki fell behind to Kyle Karros, who hit a 96-mph fastball 448 feet for his first home run this season, cutting the Dodgers’ lead to 3-2. The Rockies tied it two batters later on Edouard Julien’s RBI double.
After that, Sasaki lasted only three more batters, including walking Tyler Freeman to put runners on first and second base with two out before reliever Alex Vesia came in and got TJ Rumfield to line out to second base to preserve the tie for the time being.
Sasaki went 4.2 innings, threw 78 pitches and gave up seven hits, three runs, striking out and walking two. His ERA after his fourth start: 6.11, worst in the Dodgers’ current six-man rotation.
The Dodgers fell behind 6-5 in the seventh when Treinen — who was cleared Friday after he was struck in the head by a batted ball during batting practice — gave up four consecutive hits without getting an out, including a two-run home run to Mickey Moniak.
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After Diaz’s disastrous eighth, the Dodgers trailed 9-4 going into their final at-bat.
Still, the result will be a minor detail when Ward tells the story about getting the call after Freddie Freeman was placed on the paternity list, the opportunity of a lifetime.
Just like Miguel Rojas, the Dodgers’ veteran infielder has a vivid recollection of his major league debut at Coors on June 6, 2014: He remembers making an error at shortstop. That the whole thing was wildly nerve-racking. And wonderful.