The Colorado Rockies and Los Angeles Dodgers met on Sunday afternoon at Salt River Fields for the first of two meetings this spring between the two clubs.
Clayton Kershaw took the hill for his third Cactus League outing of the year and he was opposed by right-hander Jordan Lyles, who also made his third start.
Kershaw was looking to build on his previous pair of solid outings in which he threw two scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox, and allowed one run in three innings to the Chicago Cubs.
Kershaw gave up a leadoff single to Charlie Blackmon, but quickly erased him from the bases on a quick pick-off move. The Dodgers helped their ace in the first inning, first with a Charlie Culberson diving stop and then a Joc Pederson diving catch to end the inning:
Scott Van Slyke opened the scoring with a towering solo home run second inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 lead:
After Kershaw walked to load the bases with two outs, Pederson’s two-run single extended the Dodgers’ lead to 3-0:
Nearly squandering an Andre Ethier leadoff triple in the third, A.J. Ellis dropped down a perfect safety squeeze bunt to score Ethier with two outs:
Cody Bellinger followed by hitting his second double of the game, which scored two runs:
With the Dodgers holding a comfortable 6-0 lead, Rico Noel helped Yimi Garcia throw a 1-2-3 seventh inning by laying out for a diving catch in right-center field:
The Rockies scored three runs in the eighth off Jharel Cotton and one more against Matt West in the ninth, but were unable to complete the comeback and lost, 6-4.
