Dickerson's stumble derails Rox's ninth-inning rally

DENVER -- Corey Dickerson slid into third with a bottom-of-the-ninth leadoff triple for the Rockies against Francisco Rodriguez Sunday afternoon, then saw the ball squirt away from Brewers third baseman Aramis Ramirez.

Home plate invited him.

"I should've have walked in," Dickerson said, wistfully.

Maybe if he'd walked, he'd have made it. Instead, Dickerson's mind said "run," but his tired legs didn't respond. After falling in the basepath between third and home, Dickerson was tagged for a key out in the Rockies' 6-5 loss to the Brewers.

The crazy play went against the Rockies the way it seems most plays, even the sedate ones, have gone during their six-game losing streak.

Dickerson's triple -- and stumble -- occurred with the Rockies down two runs. The following hitter, Wilin Rosario, homered to left field with one out. However, Rodriguez struck out Ryan Wheeler and forced a Charlie Culberson grounder to end the game. For Dickerson, regret was pointless.

"My legs completely gave out," Dickerson said. "I couldn't feel them, and I fell down. I was caught after that.

"Any other time, I would have done the same thing, hustled the same way. It was an easy run."

It was a strangely fitting end to Dickerson's memorable individual series against the Brewers. He had delivered three hits in each of the first two games, with a homer in each. But he couldn't celebrate a victory.

This time, Dickerson came to the plate 0-for-4, but drove Rodriguez's first pitch of the inning to right field. That's where the good fortune began to end. The ball hit the high part of the right-field wall. Slightly left, and Dickerson would have had a home run.

The ball caromed over the head of Brewers right fielder Elian Herrera and rolled hard toward the infield. Brewers center fielder Carlos Gomez, thinking the play was going to be at third rather than at second, ran around the ball. He picked it up later, but had momentum toward third when he made the throw.

"We actually had a play if he made a good throw to third base, but it was tailing away," Ramirez said.

The ball ended up bouncing against the screen in front of the Brewers' dugout. There it turned out, a Brewers misfortune worked against Dickerson.

Had Rodriguez backed up third, Dickerson would've stayed put. But Rodriguez slightly turned his left ankle on the pitch and couldn't make it over to be a factor. Dickerson started for home, then hesitated and fell. Rodriguez became traffic cop, directing Ramirez to throw to catcher Jonathan Lucroy for the easy out.

Of course, the play stood out even more when Rosario homered on a 1-0 fastball against Rodriguez, who was visited by the trainer on the field after the Dickerson play.

"I guess when you're good things go good," said Ramirez. "If [Dickerson] doesn't fall, Rosario hits that home run to tie it up. We'll take it any way we can."

But Rosario wasn't playing the "what-if" game.

"He's not going to throw me fastballs," Rosairo said. "Everybody knows that.

"There were a lot of crazy things in that game."

Dickerson sat in the dugout with his head in a towel once the game ended. Then he went in for time in a cold tub to begin reviving his legs to try again Monday.

"It just worked out how it was going to work out," Dickerson said. "We're going through a little rough patch. But we'll snap out of it."