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Dodgers host Rockies in possible swan song for Kuroda

Jul 27, 2011 - 3:04 PM (Sports Network) - With the non-waiver trade deadline just days away, Hiroki Kuroda could be making his final start with the Dodgers this evening.

Regardless, it will be all business for the Japanese hurler as he tries to pitch Los Angeles to a sweep of its three-game series with the Colorado Rockies at Chavez Ravine.

While his name continues to highlight continued trade rumors, Kuroda has just been going out and pitching. And though he has done that well this season, producing a 3.19 earned run average in 20 starts, a lack of run support has generated him just a 6-12 record.

The righty has lost three straight outings and nine of his past 10 decisions spread out over 11 starts. He has yielded three earned runs or less in eight of those games, but the Dodgers have failed to produce more than three runs in 14 of his last 17 appearances.

That was the case again on Friday versus Washington as Kuroda yielded three runs on seven hits over 6 1/3 innings only to take a 7-2 loss. While he continues to say the trade talks are not getting to him, manager Don Mattingly wouldn't blame him if they were.

"For the whole club, I think it's not so bad," Mattingly told MLB.com. "For those individual guys, I think it's a little bit distracting. You have your family, and what happens if you get uprooted in the middle of the season?"

The 36-year-old Kuroda will need all the help he can get tonight in what could be his last start with Los Angeles given that he is 0-4 lifetime versus the Rockies in eight starts with a 6.36 ERA.

Los Angeles took advantage of a big Colorado miscue on Tuesday to sneak by with a 3-2 victory. All three Dodger runs came in the fourth inning, one that began with the Rockies' Ty Wigginton dropping a routine pop up. Matt Kemp stepped in two batters later and drove a double to center to plate a pair of runners and later scored on a Juan Rivera sacrifice fly.

"We took advantage of their mistakes. [Kemp] had a big hit," said starter Clayton Kershaw, who earned his 12th win of the season after allowing two runs over 6 2/3 innings.

Los Angeles stretched its current win streak to four straight, one shy of its season-best five-game run posted from July 7-15. Colorado, meanwhile, is now one loss short of tying its longest skid of the season, a five-game rut from July 3-7.

Jhoulys Chacin dropped his fourth straight decision after allowing three runs -- just one earned -- on three hits and a walk in a six-inning start. Todd Helton drove in both Colorado runs.

"We played with some intensity, but we didn't play well enough to win," Rockies manager Jim Tracy said.

Aaron Cook will try to build off his first victory since last September for the Rockies, one that left Tracy impressed despite an okay line score.

Cook won for the first time since Sept. 8 on Friday in Arizona, yielding four runs on eight hits and two walks over six innings. The right-hander, though, got plenty of support in an 8-4 victory, moving to 1-5 on the season with a 5.84 ERA in eight starts.

"He hung right in there and obviously gave us a very credible performance against one of their better starters [Daniel Hudson], which is all the more reason why this is a very, very nice game to win, obviously," Tracy said.

Cook, who has a 7.66 ERA in four road starts in 2011, has faced the Dodgers 22 times in his career, including 17 starts, with the 31-year-old going 6-7 in that time with a 4.09 ERA.

The Dodgers won two of three in the lone previous meeting between the clubs this season in Los Angeles on May 30-June 1 and now own a 6-5 edge in the 2011 season series.