Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Rockies rookie dooms Dodgers
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Rookie Denny Stark outpitched Odalis Perez and the Colorado Rockies handed the Los Angeles Dodgers another damaging defeat in their NL wild-card chase, 1-0 Tuesday night.
“Our hopes are very slim,” Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said. “We pretty much have to win out and we need help even if we do win out.”
The Dodgers were held to just three hits in losing their third in a row and 10th in 17 games. They dropped three games behind San Francisco, which beat San Diego 12-3.
Los Angeles has only five games left to overcome its deficit in the wild-card race.
“It's prayer time,” Dodgers left fielder Brian Jordan said. “Three is kind of tough to come back.”
The World Series champion Arizona Diamondbacks clinched a playoff spot with Los Angeles' loss.
“It was nice to do well against those guys when they're in a pennant race,” Stark said. “They've had a great year and they've got a pretty tough lineup over there.”
Todd Zeile, an ex-Dodger, hit an RBI single in the first as Colorado won its fourth in a row. The Rockies swept Arizona in a three-game weekend series.
Stark (11-3) continued his mastery of the Dodgers, improving to 2-0 in four games against them. He gave up one hit — a single by Jordan in the first — in seven innings.
“Denny Stark pitched a heck of a ballgame,” Colorado manager Clint Hurdle said. “He mixed his pitches up, hit his spots with his fastball, controlled bat speed and got outs. It was tough to take the kid out after seven innings the way he pitched, but we had a couple good guys to finish up.”
Stark struck out one and walked three. Twice, he retired seven batters in a row and threw just 93 pitches before leaving.
“This kid has been giving us trouble all year long,” Jordan said. “He pitches well against us and we still haven't figured him out yet.”
Rockies reliever Todd Jones gave up a two-out triple to Marquis Grissom in the eighth, but struck out Paul Lo Duca.
Jose Jimenez pitched the ninth for his 41st save. Eric Karros doubled with two outs before Adrian Beltre struck out to end it.
“Just no offense at all,” Karros said. “We weren't finding any holes. We had two or three strikeouts all game, so we were making contact, just not very good contact.”
Perez (15-10) allowed one run on five hits in eight innings, struck out eight and walked none. The left-hander retired nine consecutive batters at one point.
Perez had been tough against the Rockies with a 3-0 record including a one-hit shutout coming in, but he got no run support.
“You can't ask your starting pitcher to give you any more than he gave,” Tracy said. “That's the pitcher he's been all year for us. You hate to even think of the fact that this guy gets a loss for a performance like that.”
Notes: The Dodgers have been shut out 12 times this season, including nine at home. ... Perez lowered his ERA to 2.68 at home. ... Grissom's triple was the 50th of his career. ... Colorado's Greg Norton started at first base in place of 1B Todd Helton, whose wife gave birth Tuesday to the couple's first child. ... Stark's 11 victories are the most by a Colorado rookie since Armando Reynoso won 12 in 1993. ... Dodgers fans seemingly have lost interest. The announced crowd of 30,332 appeared considerably smaller. ... Karros went 1-for-4 and needs four extra-base hits to surpass Willie Davis' club record of 585. ... After Wednesday's game, Colorado heads to Arizona to close out the season on the road for the third consecutive season.
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Rockies rookie dooms Dodgers 
