Los Angeles @ Colorado preview

Last Meeting ( Apr 27, 2014 ) Colorado 6, LA Dodgers 1

As Colorado's season begins to slip away, the Rockies dip into the future while trying to erase the present when they host the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday in the opener of a three-game series. Eddie Butler was called up from Double-A Tulsa to make his highly anticipated major-league debut with the hope he can help solidify a rotation ravaged by injuries and ineffectiveness. "Eddie has been dominant at times over the last couple of seasons,'' Colorado manager Walt Weiss told the Denver Post. "We knew he was a big-leaguer — it was just a matter of time. We feel like we could use some help in the rotation and he's a very talented young pitcher."

The Rockies yielded 28 runs in their last two games after a 12-7 setback to Arizona on Thursday for their seventh straight loss and 11th in 13 contests. Los Angeles, which sends Hyun-Jin Ryu to the mound, continues to spin its wheels as the team with the most expensive payroll in baseball sits 8 1/2 games behind San Francisco in the National League West. "It may be a day here or a day there, but it hasn't felt like a true team at this point where we're all on that Tommy Lasorda end of the rope and worried about the Dodgers and, 'This is where we're going and I don't care what happens today, we're going to get there,' " manager Don Mattingly told reporters.

TV: 8:40 p.m. ET, SportsNet LA (Los Angeles), ROOT (Colorado)

PITCHING MATCHUP: Dodgers LH Hyun-Jin Ryu (6-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Rockies RH Eddie Butler (NR)

Ryu yielded a season-high 10 hits but limited the damage to two runs in six innings of a 12-2 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday for his third straight win. The 27-year-old South Korean, who took a perfect game into the eighth inning two starts back, lost 6-1 to Colorado on April 27 after allowing six runs (five earned) and nine hits in five frames. Ryu is 4-0 with a 0.56 ERA in four road starts this season and 11-4, 2.91 in 20 career outings away from home, but has never pitched in Denver.

Butler, whose arsenal includes an above-average fastball and an excellent changeup and slider, replaces Franklin Morales in the rotation. The 23-year-old Virginia native was 4-4 with a 2.49 ERA in 11 starts with Tulsa and recorded a 2.05 ERA with 238 strikeouts and 84 walks in 286 innings of his minor-league career. "I hope he comes in and pitches well enough to give us a chance to win,'' Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki told the Denver Post. "Obviously he's one of our top prospects, but I hope he doesn't feel like he has to be our savior. ... I have seen nothing but good things from him. He's a real professional. I do think he'll bring some energy to the club.''

WALK-OFFS

1. The Dodgers have not won or lost more than three games in a row this season.

2. The Rockies on Thursday placed RHP Jordan Lyles, who broke his left hand Wednesday, and LHP Boone Logan (elbow) on the 15-day disabled list, and recalled RHP Chris Martin from Triple-A Colorado Springs.

3. Los Angeles' starting rotation is third in the major leagues with a 3.27 ERA and second in victories with 27.

PREDICTION: Dodgers 6, Rockies 2