DENVER _ On Friday night, after the ugliest inning of the Dodgers' season produced a loss to the Colorado Rockies, manager Dave Roberts warned of giving away outs, especially in the extreme elements Coors Field presents.
Gaffes are amplified here, and the Dodgers needed to avoid them. The Rockies' eight-run fifth inning Friday, which featured three errors and other mistakes, was proof.
The Dodgers weren't as sloppy Saturday, but they were sloppy enough again to build a deficit that their offense, oddly muzzled in baseball's friendliest hitters' ballpark after scoring 21 runs the previous two nights, could not overcome in a 5-3 loss.
The costly mistakes arose in the sixth inning and spoiled an otherwise quality start _ given the setting _ from Clayton Kershaw.
The frame began with Max Muncy making a nifty play at second base to rob pitcher Jon Gray of a hit. But Muncy next booted a routine ground ball off Charlie Blackmon's bat. Raimel Tapia and Nolan Arenado followed with singles to drive in Blackmon and tie the score at 3.
With runners on first and second, Ian Desmond smacked a hard-hit one-hopper to shortstop Enrique Hernandez. The ball deflected off Hernandez's glove and into the outfield. Desmond was given a hit on the borderline play, leaving the bases loaded for Mark Reynolds with one out. Reynolds poked a ball through the right side, where the Dodgers' shift left a wide hole, for a two-run single and the lead for good.
Kershaw (7-2) exited after allowing five runs _ four earned _ across seven innings. He compiled seven strikeouts and didn't issue a walk. It was an outing that should have been sufficient for the Dodgers after their offensive explosions the previous two wild nights But the Dodgers were stymied by the right-hander Gray (9-5), who allowed three runs _ two earned _ in 6 2/3 innings before three relievers logged 2 1/3 scoreless frames.
Kershaw had given up 157 home runs over his 12-year career in the regular season before Saturday, but a left-handed batter had never hit one of his curveballs over the fence. The only left-handed batter ever to homer on a Kershaw curveball in the majors was Matt Adams, who belted one during the 2014 National League Division Series. That changed in the third inning Saturday when Blackmon launched a curveball for a two-run homer to give Colorado (44-39) a 2-1 edge.
Los Angeles tied the game in the fourth inning with some help. Justin Turner led off with a flyball to right-center field that Desmond, a shortstop-turned-outfielder, saw bounce off his glove. Desmond was charged with an error. Two batters later, Edwin Rios recorded his first career hit _ a missile that ricocheted off the wall and away from Desmond center field. Rios ended up with an RBI triple. The Dodgers (56-29) reclaimed the lead in the fifth on an Alex Verdugo single off Gray.
Kershaw was, by Coors Field standards, cruising. Three of his first five innings were clean. He allowed one hit outside the third inning. Then he encountered the sixth, and the Dodgers couldn't recover.
