Sometimes the kids aren’t all right; Dodgers fall 6-3 to Arizona
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Ah, kids, what are you gonna do?
Some days they’re just so wondrous, just so full of possibilities, the cheeks ache from grinning. Other days, frustration abounds, the future so uncertain, the stomach left in knots.
It’s all part of the growing process and there’s only so much you can do before they have to be sent on their merry way, hoping all that planning pays off.
The Dodgers started their top pitching prospect for the 10th time this season, and if Rubby De La Rosa’s results have been mostly encouraging, Sunday’s effort was not one of them.
De La Rosa threw a whopping 103 pitches in his four innings, giving up back-to-back home runs, as the Diamondbacks downed the Dodgers, 6-3, before an announced crowd of 43,938.
De La Rosa (4-5) surrendered home runs to Ryan Roberts and Gerardo Parra in the second inning, and the Dodgers never recovered. Parra, who came into the game with five homers on the season, added a second one against reliever Hong-Chih Kuo.
The Diamondbacks threatened in every inning against De La Rosa, whose control was never really there. They added one more against him in the fourth on a walk, stolen base and RBI single by Collin Cowgill -- the first of his career.
The Dodgers got one back in the bottom of the inning when catcher Dioner Navarro took ex-Angel Joe Saunders deep for his fourth home run of the season.
Otherwise, the Dodgers went fairly meekly. Saunders (8-8) lasted 7 2/3 innings, giving up the two runs on eight hits, no walks and three strikeouts.
Meanwhile, everything seemed a struggle for the 22-year-old De La Rosa. In his four innings, he surrendered three runs on five hits and four walks, while striking out six.
And Kuo was more of the same in the eighth. He gave up a single and a two-run homer to Parra. Then he allowed a walk, a wild pitch and single, before striking out his final two Diamondbacks.
Kuo, who set a record for pitchers with at least 50 innings with his 1.20 earned-run average last season, currently has a 12.46 ERA.
On the plus side, Andre Ethier went four for five. The Dodgers added single runs in the eighth on a Juan Rivera single and in the ninth on a Tony Gwynn Jr. hit.
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-- Steve Dilbeck