DENVER – For Clayton Kershaw, Coors Field has proven to be unsafe at any speed.
The veteran left-hander gave up hits with exit velocities ranging from 32.7 mph to 106.6 mph Saturday night, letting two early Dodgers leads get away in a 5-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies.
The effects of altitude on a baseball have been debated since the Rockies’ birth. Kershaw’s career stats provide one good barometer.
In 26 career starts at Coors Field, Kershaw has a 4.82 ERA — including 11 runs (only nine earned) in 9 1/3 innings over two starts here this season. The Rockies have hit .277 against Kershaw on their home field.
In every other stadium where Kershaw has taken the mound for a big league game, Kershaw has a 2.34 ERA and hitters have managed just a .228 average.
Kershaw gave up two home runs and walked an uncommon four batters in four innings during his other start at Coors Field this season. Saturday’s loss was an example of the other ways Coors Field can torment visiting pitchers.
Will Smith’s two-out RBI double staked Kershaw to a 1-0 lead in the first inning.
But Charlie Blackmon squibbed a ground ball (56.5 mph off the bat) away from the shift for an infield single and Brendan Rodgers dribbled one (32.7 mph) onto the infield grass for another. When Jose Iglesias hit one harder — 91 mph — to the left side, it went off third baseman Max Muncy for a run-scoring error. Randal Grichuk made it a two-run inning with a 97.9-mph single to right field.
The Dodgers got Kershaw the lead back in the third inning. Trea Turner extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a solo home run and Freddie Freeman followed with a double, chugging into third when left fielder Yonathan Daza fumbled the ball. Hanser Alberto drove him in with a two-out single.
Kershaw carried that 3-2 advantage into the sixth inning and retired C.J. Cron to start the inning. Four consecutive hits followed. One was a bloop single at 73.7 mph but the other three all left the bat at over 100 mph including a two-run triple into the right-field corner by Grichuk.
Saturday was the fifth consecutive game in which the Dodgers have scored in the first inning. But their offense went to sleep after the two-run rally in the third.
They had just one more baserunner — a bunt single by Alberto in the sixth inning — as Rockies starter Kyle Freeland and his bullpen combined to retire 19 of the final 21 Dodgers batters, a flashback to the Dodgers’ offensive slumber while losing four of their first five games at Coors Field this season.
