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Cook, Rockies defeat Dodgers

Jun 4, 2008 - 11:18 PM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- After losing eight games in a row, the Colorado Rockies have strung together consecutive dominant pitching performances.

Aaron Cook allowed one run in eight innings and Jeff Baker hit his first home run of the season Wednesday as the Rockies posted a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Cook (8-3) scattered six hits with a walk and six strikeouts. His effort came less than 24 hours after Jeff Francis tossed seven innings in Tuesday's 3-0 win over the Dodgers.

"When your pitcher goes out and throws like that today, it makes it easier to manage," Rockies manager Clint

Hurdle said. "It was just a good baseball game. It was a real professional effort from Cook today."

Baker's homer - a two-run shot in the second inning - handed Dodgers 20-year-old rookie Clayton Kershaw (0-1) his first career loss. Kershaw yielded five hits and four walks in five innings.

"He's a young kid with a bright future," Hurdle said. "We just wanted to try and work counts and get him out in the fifth inning."

"They were just patient and got my pitch count up high," Kershaw said. "I struggled with my command, and it caught up to me later in the game."

After getting blanked for the previous 15 innings, the Dodgers scratched for their only run Wednesday in the sixth. Chin-Lung Hu led off with an infield single, moved up on a sacrifice and groundout and scored on another infield hit by Matt Kemp.

That was the only inning in which Cook allowed two baserunners. He also induced the Dodgers to hit into a pair of double plays.

"I just went out there and took an aggressive attitude today," Cook said. "It turned out to be a great game for me. I had my pitches and my movement working for me from the beginning of the game. The guys behind me played great defense. Anytime I get a couple runs, I feel I got a good chance to win the game."

Baker sensed that Cook, who threw 76 of his 118 pitches for strikes, was in control throughout.

"He pounded the strike zone and worked fast and got a lot of groundball outs," Baker said. "I didn't think the home run in the second inning would hold up to be the game-winner."

Brian Fuentes tossed a perfect ninth to record his eighth save for the Rockies, who took two of three in the series.

Chan Ho Park followed Kershaw with three scoreless innings, striking out six. But the Dodgers lost for the ninth time in their last 12 games and have scored only four runs in their last four defeats.

"Right now, we are just not consistent on the offensive side." Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier said. "We just have to put together quality at-bats, and then it's just a matter of time when we start putting some runs on the board."

After Chris Iannetta reached on an infield single to open the second, Baker gave Cook all the support he needed with his first homer since September 14. Baker entered Wednesday's contest batting just .224.