LOS ANGELES _ The ball carried and carried, escorted by the hot air, and Matt Kemp flung his bat to watch it travel over the left field wall. It was a sequence the Los Angeles Dodgers had witnessed so often; Kemp clubbing a big, game-changing home run at Dodger Stadium. But that was when he was in their uniform. On Sunday, he wore the Colorado Rockies' grays.
The dugout down the first-base line erupted once Kemp's two-run home run off Dodgers left-hander Caleb Ferguson landed to give the Rockies the lead on their way to a 7-6 win.
For the third straight night, the Dodgers' bullpen was tasked with keeping the Rockies (20-20) off the board in a close game. For the third straight night, it failed. And Ferguson, so reliable for the season's first five weeks, was in the middle of the struggles this weekend.
On Friday, he surrendered two runs and got one out in the Rockies' four-run eighth inning before the Dodgers recovered with five runs in the bottom of the inning to take the lead and win the game. The Dodgers, however, couldn't rebound from his mistakes Sunday. After allowing one home run in his 15 appearances this season, Ferguson has given one up in each of his last three.
With the loss, the Dodgers (30-12) had their unbeaten series streak to begin the season snapped at 14. They've lost consecutive games for the third time this season.
The Dodgers had someone other than Mookie Betts or Joc Pederson in the leadoff spot for the first time in over a month. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Betts was given the day off to rest and Pederson wasn't with the team because of a family matter.
His choice Sunday was Gavin Lux as the organization strives to give its top prospect ample runway to find his footing weeks before the playoffs. Lux went hitless in his five plate appearances, but worked a 10-pitch walk with two outs in the ninth inning to bring up Corey Seager. The shortstop already had two home runs on the night. With two runners on base, he had a chance to win the game. He grounded out to second base to end it.
The relief corps was summoned to secure 17 outs once starter Julio Urias was pulled with one out in the fifth inning. He left with a runner on base and the Dodgers trailing 3-2. Dylan Floro then allowed the runner to score on Nolan Arenado's single.
Seager responded with his second home run to tie the game in the bottom of the frame. Seager's first homer was a flyball that carried over the left-field wall in the first inning. The second, Seager's 11th this season, was a 111.3-mph missile that traveled 427 feet. With it, Seager chased Rockies starter Ryan Castellani and posted his eighth career multi-home run game. He's batting .333 with a 1.017 on-base-plus-slugging percentage.
Colorado regained the lead on Garrett Hampson's RBI triple off Jake McGree in the sixth inning before Chris Taylor put Los Angeles ahead with another two-run homer in the bottom of the frame.
The back-and-forth ended when Kemp extended Ferguson's sudden struggles. It was Kemp's 117th career home run at Dodger Stadium. Only Eric Karros, Ron Cey and Steve Garvey have hit more. Sunday's was a little different than most of them.
