Toglia sees highs (3 doubles) and lows (2 errors) in close contest vs. LA

DENVER -- Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia’s good night quickly turned into a nightmare. Strangely, baseball gave him a chance to make his dreams sweet.

In the end, Toglia and the Rockies were left tossing and turning over a missed grand opportunity and a 9-7 loss to the Dodgers at Coors Field.

Toglia doubled in each of his first three at-bats, with the first two hits driving in a run apiece. But Toglia had a nightmare of a fourth inning defensively with two errors and, in between, a poor throw to the plate that wasn’t an error but cost an out and a run at the same time. Toglia’s troubles were a big part of a 2-0 advantage turning into a 6-2 deficit.

But this being baseball and at Coors Field, Toglia had his chance.

Two-out, eighth-inning doubles by Ryan Ritter, Tyler Freeman (for an RBI) and Jordan Beck (for two runs) cut the deficit to one -- and Toglia came to bat against Tanner Scott.

But there was no poetic joy in Denver when Toglia flied out to right. The Rockies dropped to 18-61 -- one game ahead of the 1904 Senators (17-62), who had the worst 79-decision start in the Modern Era. This year’s Rockies are tied with the 2003 Tigers, 1932 Red Sox and 1907 Cardinals.

“We were right in that game there,” Toglia said. “Obviously, I would’ve loved to get it done. Didn’t. We just have to come out tomorrow and be ready to play.”

A Teoscar Hernández RBI double in the top of the ninth gave the Dodgers a two-run lead, and Ryan McMahon’s bunt single brought the tying run to the plate with one out in the bottom of the frame. But Brenton Doyle grounded into a double play against Scott.

“That’s why you play nine innings,” interim manager Warren Schaeffer said. “Same thing for ‘BD’ [Doyle] there at the end. Three punchouts, but he gets a shot to possibly tie the game there, could have easily done it.

“Michael’s three doubles -- it was a pretty good offensive night.”

Most of the switch-hitting Toglia’s plate appearances come left-handed, but his first double Tuesday came right-handed against Dodgers opener Jack Dreyer. The other two were off Justin Wrobleski.

Toglia has generally made defense look easier. The Rockies consider him an eventual Gold Glove candidate. He had committed one error in 514 defensive innings when the fourth inning dawned.

The sun set in a hurry.

It started when Freddie Freeman’s incontestably catchable bouncer went past him on his right side, not off or under his glove or between his feet.

“It did take a bad hop, but obviously there were a couple bad plays after that,” Toglia said. “Baseball is going to challenge you and the ball is going to find you. You have to do your best to stay locked in and not get internal. As soon as you get internal, it’s going to just snowball.

“When I get in that situation, I try to get external, be with my teammates.”

But no teammates could make that inning better.

With a run in, one out and two on, Toglia fielded Andy Pages’ grounder and threw in time to the plate, but Will Smith scored on the wide throw. Only catcher Hunter Goodman’s lunging catch prevented an error on Toglia.

There was no second-guessing the decision to throw home.

“You don’t want to put a harness on the guy, just be reactionary, [saying] it was a bad play because of the result,” Schaeffer said. “But I think he makes a good throw, he’s out.”

Toglia, who during the inning received sarcastic cheers when he fielded a ground ball uneventfully, let Tommy Edman’s grounder go through him for a second error that led to a run, and a four-run disadvantage.

Compounding the issue was the inning’s effect on starting pitcher Germán Márquez, who had a 2-0 lead before Toglia’s first error started a long inning. As Toglia was making his second error, Márquez turned his right ankle heading to cover first had Toglia made the play.

Márquez, who admitted he “lost a little concentration” in an inning that saw him yield Michael Conforto’s three-run homer, left after the fourth. He does not expect the ankle issue to affect his next start.

The record will be linked to history until the Rockies win for a while, but nine wins in their last 21 games is a less onerous pace.

“We’re a different ballclub from how we started, and it’s starting to show up in the win column,” Toglia said. “There’s a lot of frustrating losses that we haven’t capitalized on yet. It’s a process and we’re going to start winning more of those.”