The drive missed Yasiel Puig’s glove by inches, banging off Coors Field’s newly constructed fence in right field and rolling across the warning track. Puig bounced off the wall and bounded forward with 16 steps. Colorado rookie Trevor Story rounded second base as Puig bent to clasp the baseball in his right hand.
Scott Kazmir had winced upon impact, fearful of surrendering a lead for the second time on the evening. Then he watched as Puig crow-hopped and attempted to render the frustration that later occurred in this 7-5 Los Angeles Dodgers defeat a mere footnote.
Puig’s rainbow throw arched over second base, over any would-be cutoff men. The baseball landed just in front of third baseman Justin Turner. He snapped it into his glove and applied the tag on Story. Umpire Hunter Wendelstedt pumped his fist. The moment electrified the crowd, even those clad in purple. Turner looked stunned. Puig pumped his fist and maintained a stony glare.
So much that Puig has done in this season - the newfound punctuality, the renewed tenacity of his at-bats - has earned praised. But nothing had elicited the awe of his throw in Friday’s fifth inning. The shadow of the play almost obscured the subsequent Dodgers disappointment of the evening, as reliever Yimi Garcia walked off the mound with an injury and Chris Hatcher served up a two-run triple to Brandon Barnes in the eighth.
The throw by Puig operated as a metaphor _ enough caulk to fix one crack created by the Dodgers’ pitching staff, but not a salve for all its troubles.
The bullpen breakdown cost the team (10-7) a chance for a third consecutive victory. With Garcia’s fastball velocity declining in rapid fashion, he gave up a run in the seventh and exited with a trainer. Hatcher pitched himself into danger, yielding a walk and a single before Barnes pulled the Rockies ahead.
Adrian Gonzalez supplied a home run in the fifth. Corey Seager recovered from a frightful series in Atlanta with his second homer of the season. Kazmir overcame the latest edition of Rocky Mountain pinball, escaping after giving up four runs in five innings. The bullpen collapsed in his wake.
After a tidy debut against the Padres, a pair of starts against San Francisco distressed Kazmir and inflated his earned-run average. The Giants pounded him for 10 runs in eight innings after which Kazmir felt compelled to streamline his delivery.
When he revived his career in Cleveland in 2013, Kazmir exaggerated the swing of his arm and the sweep of his front leg in order to generate velocity.
He needed the crutch, but it came with a downside. In the short-term, his delivery could be difficult to repeat. And over the course the season, the excess movement fatigued him.
“It’s hard to keep your body right when you’re swinging your arm, doing all types of crazy stuff,” Kazmir said on Thursday morning in Atlanta.
Kazmir wanted to streamline the process and integrate the mechanics of his slide-step motion into his usual delivery. During the week he suggested the switch to pitching coach Rick Honeycutt. “As soon as I said something,” Kazmir said, “He was like, ‘You know what? You’re absolutely right. It’s so tough to repeat that delivery.’”
His teammates spotted him a three-run lead in the first inning. After three days of offensive malaise in Atlanta, the group sprung to two early homers off Colorado starter Jon Gray.
Seager followed Chase Utley’s leadoff triple by launching his second home run of the season. The baseball cleared the wall in center field 415 feet away.
The Rockies raised the outfield fences this year, part of the organisation’s annual attempt to combat their home’s elevation above sea level. But the home run hit by Gonzalez made the off-season alterations moot. He powered a 96-mph fastball into the second deck for a solo shot.
The lead was not safe for long. Kazmir needed 49 pitches to finish two innings.
 The Rockies scratched a run across in the second. With the bases loaded, Kazmir delayed a beat as he went to cover first base, arriving a step too short to complete a double play for the third out.
Two innings later, Kazmir had bigger problems. Nolan Arenado, Colorado’s All-Star third baseman, lifted a solo homer over the left field fence. The lead was down to one, and it would only last three more batters.
That’s when Ryan Raburn turned on a belt-high fastball for a two-run shot. Kazmir screamed into his glove after the inning ended, once more unable to hold a sizeable, early lead.
His teammates picked him in two ways in the fifth. With the bases loaded and two out, Gonzalez poked a two-run single into right. Then, after Story smashed his ball off the fence, Puig unleashed that vaunted right arm and stole the show - at least, until the Dodgers bullpen arrived.