DENVER -- Rockies fans have grown accustomed to seeing Nolan Arenado save runs -- and games -- with his glove, leading all third basemen with defensive runs saved in each of the past two seasons. In Friday night's nailbiter between two teams vying for the National League West lead, the pendulum swung the other way, as an Arenado error in the fifth -- challenged, unsuccessfully, by the Rockies -- led to two unearned runs and was the difference in the Dodgers' 4-2 win over Colorado.
With the loss, the Rockies' lead atop the standings shrunk to a half-game over the Dodgers, and one-and-a-half games over the D-backs, who beat the Braves Friday.
The moment of truth came when the Rockies lost a big challenge on what would have been an inning-ending groundout with the game tied 2-2 in the fifth. Pinch-hitter Alex Verdugo drove a ball to the hole at shortstop, and with the shift on, Arenado ranged to his left, fielded and fired to first while backing up to get his footing. The throw ultimately pulled Ian Desmond off the base a split-second before Verdugo touched the bag, but it wasn't clear if he'd remained in contact with the bag until he caught the ball.

"It was just a tough play," Arenado said. "I tried to get rid of it quick. It caught me in between, so I had to backpedal. I wish I would have made it. I feel like I usually make those plays. It's just one of those times right now where nothing's working out."
Replays looked promising to the 41,547 fans in Coors Field, but ultimately the replay official could not definitively determine that Desmond's foot was touching the base when the ball contacted the interior of his glove. The call stood as an E-5, with an unearned run coming home on the play and another unearned run scoring when Yasiel Puig singled to right in the next at-bat.
Arenado emphasized that the lingering pain from a shoulder injury he sustained in August is not the issue, saying he's just in a slump.
"I wish I wasn't going through it right now, especially [with it] being September," Arenado said. "This game's hard, and I'm doing the best I can. I got to pick it up. I got to help this team somehow. It sucks."
The fourth run scoring on the play after the error was critical, even with the Rockies' potent lineup at home in Coors Field. Starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw came into the game with a 102-0 regular-season record when the Dodgers give him four or more runs of support. Center fielder Charlie Blackmon said he was "not especially" happy with the way the team approached Kershaw.
"I felt like we competed pretty well," Blackmon said. "We took some good swings here and there, but we got a lot of guys that are better than what we did tonight."

After the Dodgers got the early lead with a run-scoring double from Cody Bellinger in the first and a solo homer from Puig in the second, Colorado caught up in the bottom of the inning when Matthew Holliday hit his second homer since his return, a solo shot to left, Desmond doubled to center, and Andrew Butera plated Desmond with a single to right.
The Rockies were poised to turn the game after Kershaw left at the end of six. Pinch-hitter Chris Iannetta beat out an infield single to second off reliever Caleb Ferguson, and DJ LeMahieu kept the inning alive with a single to right that prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to go to his 'pen again. Dylan Floro walked Arenado, bringing Trevor Story to the plate with the bases loaded. He struck out on a slider, low and away.

"We got some guys on," manager Bud Black said. "It's a competition between pitcher and hitter. That's the beauty of this game, when that happens and the game is tight and the game is close, it comes down to those confrontations. Tonight in a couple different at-bats, they won.
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Gray grinding: Rockies starter Jon Gray struggled through four innings, but left the game with a 2-2 tie. He gave up four hits and tied a career high with five walks while striking out four, elevating his pitch count to 85.
"If I walk one or two guys it's too much," Gray said. "It's got to be fixed."
With the game tied in the top of the fourth, he walked Grandal to open the inning, retired Puig and Kershaw, then walked Joc Pederson to face the middle of the order with two on and two out. Rockies tormenter Justin Turner came to the plate, bringing a .313 average (5-for-16 with three doubles) against Gray. Turner watched three straight pitches to get the count to 3-0, then watched three straight strikes to end the inning looking. Gray was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the inning.

"Jon was a little out of sorts," Black said. "He just didn't look as though he was in sync tonight with his release point, his arm action, his fastball command. He threw some good sliders. He got some outs with sliders, he got some strikeouts with sliders. Got underneath the lefty a couple times for strikeouts. But overall, Jon just looked out of sync."
SOUND SMART
Story surpassed Troy Tulowitzki's 2009 mark by collecting his 301st base of the season, giving him the record for most total bases by a Rockies shortstop in a single season.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Even before the Rockies lost their big challenge in the fifth, the inning was an ill-omened adventure. Gray came out after four, and reliever Chris Rusin walked the first two batters he faced on eight balls before pulling himself together to fan Bellinger. Facing Enrique Hernandez, Rusin was called for a balk, advancing the runners to second and third. Black came out to argue the call and was promptly ejected by home-plate umpire Andy Fletcher.

"I saw a basic inside move by Chris," Black said. "Andy, who I think is a very good umpire, did not see it how I saw it. It looked to me as though, just from my vantage point, that when Chris picked his right leg up he broke the plane and went back over the rubber."
Hernandez then grounded into the hole at short, and Story went far to his right to make the play, firing home to nail the lead runner on a 6-2 fielder's choice, setting up the challenged Arenado error and the unearned game-winning runs to follow.
DO-IT-YOURSELF REPLAY
There was frustration on both sides of the field regarding some of the calls from Fletcher behind the plate, and while Black called it "dangerous" to talk about the strike zone's impact on his team's uncharacteristically high nine-walk tally, Blackmon didn't mind airing some grievances about his final at-bat when he struck out on a full count without swinging at a single pitch and gave Fletcher an impromptu earful. All six pitches were out of the strike zone, according to Gameday's pitch chart.

"I try really hard at what I do, so anything that's close or where there's something that's controversial that happens, I go look at it [on video], because there's something to be learned," Blackmon said. "That's what people who want to be good at what they do, do. I would expect that from everybody on a big league baseball field. "When I went back and looked at it, yes [my opinion was reinforced]. I felt at the time the calls were missed."
UP NEXT
Sophomore starter Kyle Freeland toes the rubber for the Rockies in the middle game of the three-game set with the Dodgers, taking on Walker Buehler at 6:10 p.m. MT on Saturday. Freeland leads all Rockies starters with 13 wins and a 2.96 ERA, and the Denver native boasts an astonishing 2.27 ERA at hitter-friendly Coors Field. The southpaw is undefeated in his last six starts, and the team is 11-1 over his last 12 starts.