As Butch Cassidy asked the Sundance Kid, and vice versa, “Who are those guys?”
Well, those were indeed the Rockies who beat the powerhouse Dodgers, 5-2, Tuesday night in Los Angeles.
The Dodgers have won 110 games and are headed to the postseason as the National League’s No. 1 seed. The Rockies have won just 68 games and are going nowhere, but to their offseason homes after Wednesday afternoon’s regular-season finale.
But the Rockies, playing some of their best road baseball of the season, have won three consecutive games at Dodger Stadium.
Tuesday night, they hit three home runs for the first time in a road game all season. That gave them 50 road homers for the season, saving them from the ignominy of hitting the fewest road homers in franchise history. The 2000 club finished with 49.
Brendan Rodgers hit a solo blast in the first inning and rookie Sean Bouchard did the same in the third, with both of the homers coming off lefty Julio Urias, who’s a contender to win the NL Cy Young Award.
The deciding homer came off the bat of Randal Grichuk, who hit a two-out, two-run shot off reliever Andrew Heaney in the seventh. Grichuk now has 19 homers and 73 RBIs.
For starter Ryan Feltner, it’s been a season of growing pains and sometimes painful lessons, but he aced his final exam of the season. The right-hander, making his 19th start, pitched six strong innings, allowing two runs on four hits, striking out four and walking two.
L.A. scratched out a run off of Feltner in third on a leadoff double by Gavin Lux and an RBI single by Cody Bellinger. Joey Gallo’s two-out, solo homer in the fifth tied the game, 2-2.
Feltner finished the season 4-9 with a 5.83 ERA and a 1.41 WHIP over 97 1/3 innings.
Colorado tacked on a run in the ninth on a double by Elehuris Montero and an RBI single by Garrett Hampson who drove in Ryan McMahon, who was running for Montero.
Closer Daniel Bard pitched a perfect ninth for his 34th save in 37 chances and lowered his ERA to 1.79.