Dodgers at Rockies
As Colorado's season begins to slip away, the Rockies dip into the future while trying to erase the present when they host the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday in the opener of a three-game series. Eddie Butler was called up from Double-A Tulsa to make his highly anticipated major-league debut with the hope he can help solidify a rotation ravaged by injuries and ineffectiveness. "Eddie has been dominant at times over the last couple of seasons,'' Colorado manager Walt Weiss told the Denver Post. "We knew he was a big-leaguer — it was just a matter of time. We feel like we could use some help in the rotation and he's a very talented young pitcher."
The Rockies yielded 28 runs in their last two games after a 12-7 setback to Arizona on Thursday for their seventh straight loss and 11th in 13 contests. Los Angeles, which sends Hyun-Jin Ryu to the mound, continues to spin its wheels as the team with the most expensive payroll in baseball sits 8 1/2 games behind San Francisco in the National League West. "It may be a day here or a day there, but it hasn't felt like a true team at this point where we're all on that Tommy Lasorda end of the rope and worried about the Dodgers and, 'This is where we're going and I don't care what happens today, we're going to get there,' " manager Don Mattingly told reporters.
TV: 8:40 p.m. ET, SportsNet LA (Los Angeles), ROOT (Colorado)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Dodgers LH Hyun-Jin Ryu (6-2, 3.09 ERA) vs. Rockies RH Eddie Butler (NR)
Ryu yielded a season-high 10 hits but limited the damage to two runs in six innings of a 12-2 victory over Pittsburgh on Saturday for his third straight win. The 27-year-old South Korean, who took a perfect game into the eighth inning two starts back, lost 6-1 to Colorado on April 27 after allowing six runs (five earned) and nine hits in five frames. Ryu is 4-0 with a 0.56 ERA in four road starts this season and 11-4, 2.91 in 20 career outings away from home, but has never pitched in Denver.
Butler, whose arsenal includes an above-average fastball and an excellent changeup and slider, replaces Franklin Morales in the rotation. The 23-year-old Virginia native was 4-4 with a 2.49 ERA in 11 starts with Tulsa and recorded a 2.05 ERA with 238 strikeouts and 84 walks in 286 innings of his minor-league career. "I hope he comes in and pitches well enough to give us a chance to win,'' Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki told the Denver Post. "Obviously he's one of our top prospects, but I hope he doesn't feel like he has to be our savior. ... I have seen nothing but good things from him. He's a real professional. I do think he'll bring some energy to the club.''
WALK-OFFS
1. The Dodgers have not won or lost more than three games in a row this season.
2. The Rockies on Thursday placed RHP Jordan Lyles, who broke his left hand Wednesday, and LHP Boone Logan (elbow) on the 15-day disabled list, and recalled RHP Chris Martin from Triple-A Colorado Springs.
3. Los Angeles' starting rotation is third in the major leagues with a 3.27 ERA and second in victories with 27.