Nolan Arenado's two home runs send Dodgers to third straight loss

LOS ANGELES >> Baseball has a way of turning heroes into fools faster than most forces on Earth.

Take Nolan Arenado on Tuesday. The Colorado Rockies’ slugger nearly twisted himself into the ground swinging and missing at a Pedro Baez fastball in the seventh inning. His helmet fell off and his knee collapsed to the ground. Arenado struck out on the next pitch.

By then, Arenado had already etched his contribution to the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss in stone. His two home runs against Hyun-Jin Ryu (0-3) gave the Rockies an early, insurmountable cushion before an announced crowd of 37,960 at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers’ third consecutive loss dropped their record to 7-8, the first time since May 22, 2016 they’ve been below .500.

Last year, the Dodgers weathered the early storm to win the National League West. For now there’s little use dwelling on the fact that the Rockies (10-5) and Arizona Diamondbacks (10-5) have both surpassed the Dodgers in the standings.

But Tuesday’s loss did expose some troublesome trends — beginning, again, with a left-handed pitcher, and ending with another injury,

Colorado starter Kyle Freeland was the beneficiary of Arenado’s bat. He survived four hits, four walks and a hit batter before turning the ball over to his bullpen with a 4-1 lead in the fifth inning.

Freeland, a 23-year-old left-hander, has now started three major league games. He allowed one run in his debut against the Dodgers, a win; six runs against the San Diego Padres, a loss; and one run in four innings Tuesday. In the span of three weeks he’s become an unlikely nemesis, a mouse to the Dodgers’ elephant.

The Dodgers fell to 2-6 in eight games against left-handed starters this season, continuing a theme that emerged last year.

Their problems Tuesday extended beyond Freeland’s left arm.

Logan Forsythe left the game with a contusion on his right big toe after he was hit with a Freeland fastball in the first inning. An x-ray on the toe was inconclusive, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said that Forsythe would be examined again Wednesday morning.

“It just hurts,” Forsythe said after the game. “I hope it’s not (broken) but I guess we’ll get that news (Wednesday).”

Forsythe has had surgeries to remove a sesamoid in both feet and suffered from plantar fasciitis in his right foot.

Although he stayed in the game long enough to play a half-inning in the field, he said “the push-off wasn’t going to be where it needed to be” for him to continue.

Justin Turner was hit by a Freeland pitch on his a knuckle on his right hand in the fifth inning, but was able to finish the game. X-rays were negative, Roberts said.

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Still, with both Turner and Forsythe banged up, Roberts couldn’t rule out the possibility that the Dodgers would recall an extra bat prior to Wednesday’s game against the Rockies.

Trevor Story also hit a home run against Ryu (0-3), who threw 86 pitches in six innings — his longest start of the year. The left-hander was charged with four runs, all earned. All three home runs he allowed were hit against fastballs, which regularly topped out around 91 mph.

“It’s still quite difficult to ignore the fact that I allowed three home runs,” Ryu said through an interpreter. “But looking at the pitch count and the innings, there are definitely positive signs and it is definitely something I can build on.”

No National League pitcher has allowed more home runs than Ryu (six).

“We feel comfortable with him making a start every fifth day,” Roberts said of Ryu. “As he gets into the rhythm of the season we know he’ll get better. I think for us the barometer for Ryu is repeating his delivery, which he’s doing; holding velocity, which he’s doing; and executing pitches.

“If you look at the three starts, he’s made some mistakes out over with the fastball and they’ve been hit out of the ballpark. If he can minimize the damage he’ll be fine.”

Down 3-0 in the fourth inning, the Dodgers had some chances to come back.

Right-hander Scott Oberg relieved Freeland with runners on first and second base and none out in the fifth inning. Oberg struck out Yasiel Puig and retired Kiké Hernandez on a flyout. Left-hander Chris Rusin (2-0) then got Adrian Gonzalez to ground out to end the inning.

The Dodgers left two runners on base in the seventh inning, two more in the ninth, and finished 2 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

Down 4-1, RBI singles by Turner and Yasmani Grandal off Rockies closer Greg Holland brought the Dodgers within a run in the ninth inning. But with runners on first and second base, Holland got Gonzalez to ground out to end the game.

Gonzalez had two of the Dodgers’ six hits.