The Sports Xchange
Sep 10, 2017
LOS ANGELES -- Nolan Arenado and Mark Reynolds powered the offense and Tyler Chatwood supplied five scoreless innings as the Colorado Rockies rolled to an 8-1 victory on Sunday to continue the Los Angeles Dodgers' misery.
Arenado had an RBI single in the first inning and a solo home run in the third.
Reynolds put the game out of reach with a grand slam in the eighth inning off Dodgers rookie Walker Buehler as the Rockies completed a four-game sweep over their National League West rivals.
The Dodgers, meanwhile, are in the midst of an epic collapse. Los Angeles has lost 10 consecutive games for the first time since 1992. The Dodgers have also lost nine consecutive games at Dodger Stadium for the first time since 1987.
Los Angeles led the division by as many as 21 1/2 games, but are now just nine games up on the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Rockies have made up four games in four days and are now 14 back.
Colorado still might not catch the Dodgers in the division, but it maintained its 2 1/2-game lead over Milwaukee for the second wild-card spot after the Brewers swept the Chicago Cubs over the weekend.
In a span of 16 days, the Dodgers lost 15 out of 16 games -- including both contests of a day-night doubleheader last weekend at San Diego. The only game they won in the stretch was a 1-0 decision at San Diego, when Clayton Kershaw fired six scoreless innings in his return from the disabled list.
After not being swept in a series all season a mere two weeks ago, the Dodgers have now been swept in three of their last four series. They have been swept in consecutive series for the first time since 2015.
The Dodgers lost all seven games of their just-concluded homestand, the first time they have lost every game of a homestand (five games or longer) in Dodger Stadium history, according to STATS.
In what became a theme for the four-game series, the Rockies jumped on top with a run in the first inning. Arenado's single off Rich Hill (9-8) gave the Rockies a 1-0 lead.
The Rockies scored in the first inning in three of the four games in the series. In the game that they did not score in the first inning, they took a 4-0 lead in the second inning Saturday.
The first-inning could have been bigger, but the Rockies did not score after loading the bases with no outs. Hill got out of the jam with a popup and two strikeouts.
Arenado was at it again in the third inning, giving the Rockies a 2-0 lead with a solo home run to right field. It was Arenado's 32nd home run of the season and second of the series after going deep Thursday. Arenado drove in seven runs during the four games.
Chatwood (7-12) scattered five hits and struck out five in the win.
Hill, the National League's pitcher of the month in July, went five innings for the Dodgers, giving up his two runs on four hits, with two walks and five strikeouts. Hill has given up three earned runs or fewer in 13 of his last 14 starts, with the one outlier coming on Aug. 29 when Arizona scored six times off him. That was close to the beginning of the Dodgers' current woes.
In the ninth inning, Trevor Story hit a solo home run for the Rockies, his 21st of the year, while Dodgers rookie Alex Verdugo hit a solo home run to spoil the shutout. It was the first career home run for Verdugo, who is a September call-up for the Dodgers.
NOTES: Rockies LHP Tyler Anderson (left knee inflammation) was activated from the 60-day disabled list. ... The Dodgers announced that LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu will have his next start skipped for rest purposes only and that he is not injured. ... Dodgers 1B Adrian Gonzalez, out since Tuesday after getting a pain-relieving epidural shot in his lower back, is expected to return to action in the upcoming series at San Francisco.