After back-to-back impressive showings from Clayton Kershaw and Rich Hill, Kenta Maeda was the first Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher to show some rust this spring.
Maeda’s first pitch was a strike, but he followed it by throwing four straight balls. The leadoff walk was erased on a double play, but Maeda failed to get through the first inning unscathed. Jordan Patterson’s home run to center field gave the Colorado Rockies a 1-0 lead.
Jon Gray allowed a leadoff single to Logan Forysthe in the bottom of the first, then grazed Corey Seager with a pitch to put two runners on with nobody out. However, Gray proceeded to retire the next three batters faced.
Maeda worked around a one-out double and walk in the second, keeping the Dodgers within a run. He allowed one run, two hits, issued two walks and had a strikeout in two innings.
Andrew Toles reached on a flare single with one out in the bottom of the second, but was later caught stealing. Cody Bellinger was then called out on strikes to give Gray two scoreless innings of work.
Luis Avilan allowed a one-out base hit in the third, issued a walk and threw a wild pitch but got out of the inning without allowing a run. He was buoyed by recording a pair of strikeouts. Josh Fields, making his 2017 spring debut, was hit hard in the fourth inning.
He allowed back-to-back singles that put runners on the corners with none out, and later surrendered a three-run homer to Tony Wolters. Fields was removed after Alexi Amarista’s double, having only retired one of five batters faced.
Brock Stewart didn’t fare much better, as he gave up an RBI double and run-scoring single prior to ending the inning. Rockies reliever Jeff Hoffman struck out Franklin Gutierrez and Joc Pederson after allowing a leadoff single in the bottom of the fourth.
Yasiel Puig flared a single to center field, and Toles’ blooper to left dropped between a trio of Rockies for an RBI single. Bellinger walked to load the bases, which prompted a pitching change. Scott Oberg worked out of the bases-loaded jam by catching Charlie Culberson looking.
Stewart gave up a double and sacrifice fly in the fifth, which extended the Rockies’ lead to 7-1. Chase De Jong was among the Dodgers relievers who combined to keep Colorado scoreless the rest of the way, but Los Angeles failed to generate any offense, and suffered their first loss of 2017 Spring Training.
