Rockies' bullpen locks down Dodgers in comeback win

DENVER – The Rockies have stumbled upon a working strategy: Stay close until the end, then dare the opponent to blink.

Even the Dodgers succumbed on Tuesday night.

Trailing by two runs heading into the eighth, the Rockies benefited from two errors, then watched a suddenly airtight bullpen nail down their fifth win in seven July games, 4-3, at Dodger Stadium.

There was a gift element to the eighth, with a run scoring on shortstop Miguel Rojas’ fielding error and two more coming when the Dodgers made a hash of Jake McCarthy’s bunt. But the inning also included Kyle Karros’ leadoff walk and Cole Carrigg’s single as the batters worked the count to fastballs.

McCarthy’s squeeze bunt drove in Carrigg from third, and Tyler Freeman scored the go-ahead run all the way from first when second baseman Alex Freeland made a throw to an improperly covered third base. The Rockies have scored an MLB-high 129 runs in the eighth inning or later

Starter Michael Lorenzen yielded Shohei Ohtani’s 300th career home run to lead off the bottom of the first, but struck out five and worked around six hits and three walks through six innings. Juan Mejia’s two innings allowing one hit and Jordan Romano’s scoreless ninth for his second Rockies save (sixth of the season) extended the team’s scoreless relief streak to 25 1/3 innings.