The night began with the promise of success: The Dodgers had won their previous contest with an offensive explosion, Brad Penny was pitching against one of his favorite opponents in Colorado, and Juan Pierre had doubled to lead off the game.
For the rest of the night, though, failure was all the Dodgers knew.
Most of it came from the left hand of Jeff Francis, who kept the Dodgers off-balance all night in the 3-0 Colorado victory. Francis (2-5) picked Pierre off second base, preventing a run from scoring on Jeff Kent's subsequent single. For the next six innings, Francis and his slow curve kept the Dodgers off the scoreboard, getting all the run support he needed in a two-run third inning that featured a sacrifice fly to Pierre's wimpy arm in leftfield and an RBI single from Todd Helton.
The Dodgers, then, preferred to see their 8-2 win the night before as an aberration, not a new beginning. They quickly reverted to their ways of not scoring, managing only four hits off Francis. Penny (5-7) labored through six innings, recording a quality start with only two runs allowed, but with the Dodger offense undoubtedly looking ahead to their next road trip of futility, it was more than enough for Colorado.
The biggest hit any Dodger delivered was from Matt Kemp, who got into it with Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba after they collided following Kemp's eighth-inning strikeout. This seemed to be a result of both sides' mounting frustration: For the Dodgers, it was their offensive ineptitude, culminating in Kemp's 0-for-4 night. For the Rockies, it was their eight-game losing streak, 13-game road losing streak and return to fourth in the competitively futile NL West following the pennant last season. A bench-clearing brawl ensued, and thankfully the bullpen pitchers jogged in from the outfield to mull around as Kemp and Torrealba were ejected.
The ejection may have proved to help the Rockies, as backup Chris Iannetta hit a solo shot in the top of the ninth to give the Rockies a three-run cushion which proved useful when the Dodger bats briefly awoke, with a two-out single by James Loney and a double Delwyn Young in the bottom half. However, Iannetta's homer meant Blake DeWitt couldn't drive in the tying runs with a single, and he flew out against Brian Fuentes to end the game.
The Dodgers offense has been downright ugly, but everyone expects Rafael Furcal to bring back the hits, the runs and the wins. The way the rest of the team has been playing recently means his return probably won't do much in terms of wins, but at least it should get Chin-Lung Hu off the field. With a remarkable average of .160 he should be a pitcher. Maybe he should start instead of Penny, who's been pitching less like an ace and more like a Tomko.
Keywords: bench-clearing brawl, Colorado Rockies, Jeff Francis, Los Angeles Dodgers, Matt Kemp, offense, Yorvit Torrealba
