For the Rockies, a team that struggles mightily to manufacture runs on the road, it was shaping up as a dream inning Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium.
No. 9 hitter Ezequiel Tovar led off the third with a single and advanced to second on Jurickson Profar’s single to right — Profar’s first hit in a Rockies uniform. Then Yonathan Daza executed a perfect bunt single toward third base to load the bases with no outs.
Into the batter’s box stepped the big boys. Problem was, Kris Bryant struck out looking at a 3-2 curveball by lefty-hander Julio Urias and C.J. Cron grounded into a rally-killing double play.
With Jurias on the mound, that was pretty much the ballgame: Dodgers 5, Rockies 2. Jurias pitched six scoreless innings, allowing five hits and no walks while striking out six.
“We had a missed opportunity in the third inning that could have swung the momentum to us, and the whole world changes if we break through there,” manager Bud Black told reporters in Los Angeles.
That makes four consecutive losses for the Rockies after they opened the season 2-0.
Los Angeles had only seven hits, but three of them left the yard off right-hander German Marquez, who continues to be haunted by home runs. The three homers given up tied a career-high for Marquez, who served up 30 homers last season, tied for the fourth-most in the majors.
In the first inning, Rockies killer Will Smith hammered a two-run homer to left, scoring Mookie Betts, who led off with a single. Marquez hung a breaking ball. Jason Heyward led off the third with a blast to right field off a high fastball to make it 3-0, and Max Muncy led off the fourth with another bomb, on another fastball left up in the zone, to right to make it 4-0.
“That came back to bite German, the missed locations,” Black said. “He tried to go down (in the zone) but he elevated (the fastballs) and they squared them up.”
Marquez, so sharp in the season-opener at San Diego, departed after 5 1/3 innings, allowing five hits, striking out four and walking two.
“I felt good, I felt like I was making my pitches,” Marquez told AT&T SportsNet. “I just missed three pitches and they got them pretty good. I missed a little bit up. But I feel like everything, for me, is working.”
L.A. scored a comfort run in the eighth on an RBI double by Smith off Pierce Johnson.
The Rockies entered the night hitting .225 with runners in scoring position. That was a slight (early season) improvement from last year when they batted .192 with runners in scoring position on the road. There is a sliver of good news. Colorado hit just seven homers with RISP away from Coors Field last season. Already this season, they have hit three homers with runners in scoring position, but they failed in the clutch Tuesday night.
Bryant and Cron both had bad nights in that department. In the first, Daza hit a one-out double but was stranded when Bryant struck out and Cron fouled out to Smith. Cron, the National League player of the week for his performance last week, is mired in an 0-for-13 skid.
The Rockies scored two runs with a ninth-inning rally. Bryant doubled and scored on a double by Elehuris Montero off reliever Phil Bickford, who then walked Ryan McMahon. In came right-hander Evan Phillips, who promptly hit Elias Diaz in the hand to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate.
Pinch-hitter Mike Moustakas hit a sacrifice fly off of Phillips to score Montero but pinch-hitter Charlie Blackmon grounded out to first to end the game.
The Dodgers improved to 60-28 against Colorado since 2018.
The Rockies are off Wednesday before hosting the Nationals on Thursday for the home opener at Coors Field.
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