The Los Angeles Dodgers saw their 12-game winning streak against the Colorado Rockies come to an end on Friday night, falling 13-9 in another Coors Field classic.
Offense was abound for consecutive night, as the two teams combined for 28 hits and 22 runs, changing leads on multiple occasions. In the series opener, there was a cumulative production of 33 hits and 20 runs scored.
The Dodgers held a 5-2 lead through four innings, which is slim for any game at Coors Field, even with the best pitcher in baseball, Hyun-Jin Ryu, on the mound.
As is often the case in their home games, the Rockies offense came alive. They tagged Ryu for five runs and chased him before he could record an out in the fifth inning.
The first relief pitcher out of the bullpen for Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was Joe Kelly, who wasn’t able to put out the fire, although his defense also did not do him any favors. Kelly allowed the first four batters he faced to reach, with two of them coming on infield singles and one on an error by Justin Turner.
Kelly wound up allowing five hits and three runs (one earned) in the inning despite only one ball leaving the infield. Kelly expressed his frustration with the official scorekeeper after the game, specifically taking issue with balls that were ruled hits, via Jorge Castillo of the L.A. Times:
Joe Kelly, not a fan of tonight's official scorer: "I'm not a believer in me giving up five hits. It is Colorado. And we're in Denver. Who knows, that guy up there could be f**king high."
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) June 29, 2019
Kelly signed a lucrative three-year, $25 million contract as a free agent with the Dodgers in the offseason and so far has not been able to live up to it. Friday’s appearance at Coors Field was the latest of a handful of frustrating outings for the 31-year-old.
In 27 games this season, Kelly has posted a 6.26 ERA and 1.76 WHIP with 32 strikeouts and 13 walks in 27.1 innings. After getting off to a rough start, he seemed to be turning a bit of a corner of late though as he had pitched to a 2.08 ERA in his last 13 appearances.
He hasn’t been the only Dodgers pitcher to struggle the last two nights at Coors Field, so he and the rest of the Dodgers staff will surely be looking forward to getting out of Colorado after two more games this weekend.
