LOS ANGELES – Jorge De La Rosa pitched two-hit ball over seven-plus scoreless innings before leaving with an injury and the Colorado Rockies blasted three home runs to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-1 on Saturday night, handing Zack Greinke his first loss of the season.
De La Rosa (1-2) retired 18 consecutive batters after Kike Hernandez led off the first inning with a double and Jimmy Rollins reached on a throwing error. The 34-year-old left-hander departed after giving up an infield single to Howie Kendrick with one out in the seventh.
Carlos Gonzalez, Daniel Descalso and Nolan Arenado homered for the Rockies.
Greinke (5-1), who leads the majors with a 1.52 earned-run average, allowed four hits and no walks through six innings and struck out five before he was lifted for a pinch hitter with the Dodgers trailing 1-0.
De La Rosa faced the NL West-leading Dodgers for the second time in seven days, after giving up six walks and five runs over four innings in a no-decision at Coors Field.
He had surrendered 17 runs, 23 hits and 12 walks through 16 innings in his four previous starts after beginning the season on the disabled list with a groin strain.
Rafael Betancourt and Scott Oberg finished up the combined three-hitter. The Dodgers’ run came in the ninth, when Oberg hit Justin Turner with a pitch with the bases loaded.
Rockies manager Walt Weiss was back in the dugout after missing two games because of an emergency appendectomy and leaving the reins to bench coach Tom Runnells.
Greinke, the 2009 AL Cy Young winner, had a no-decision his last time out despite allowing one run over seven innings against the Miami Marlins.
Greinke was 22-1 in his previous 32 starts against NL West teams since joining the Dodgers – the only blemish, a 1-0 loss to the Rockies on Sept. 28, 2013, at Los Angeles.
Gonzalez opened the scoring in the first with his solo homer to right-center. The Rockies made it 3-0 in the seventh against Sergio Santos with a one-out walk to Michael McKenry and Descalso’s homer to right field, ending a drought of 334 at-bats since Aug. 2, 2013, when he hit two at Cincinnati for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Descalso started at shortstop in place of Troy Tulowitzki, who had tightness in his left quadriceps. In Friday night’s 6-4 loss, Descalso hit a three-run double after Tulowitzki left the game in the third inning.
Arenado added a two-run shot off Santos during the Rockies’ three-run eighth. Santos had four strikeouts in the inning, one night after teammate Kenley Jansen made his season debut from the disabled list and fanned four batters in the eighth. In both cases, the first batter of the inning reached after the third strike got away from the catcher.
Greinke’s bid for extra bases in the third was run down by center fielder Charlie Blackmon in left-center as he and Corey Dickerson converged on the ball. Dickerson appeared to favor his left leg returning to his position, but remained in the game until Drew Stubbs pinch hit for him in the fourth. The Rockies said Dickerson re-aggravated the plantar fasciitis in his foot.
