Rockies-Dodgers box score

LOS ANGELES — The Rockies have visions of a September to remember.

First, though, they have to deal with the angst of August.

After a wasted week in Southern California that ended with a come-from-ahead 4-3 loss to the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on Sunday afternoon, the Rockies return to Coors Field tonight.

The Rockies start a seven-game homestand that is suddenly pivotal to their plans of being a part of the National League postseason scenario.

"This is an opportunity we have to embrace," manager Clint Hurdle said. "Everybody has to play to win. We have to turn it loose. . . . We have to find a way to play better. We're not looking to lay blame. We're looking to do better, to learn from what has happened."

The education starts with the

reality that while the Rockies have been in a recent funk — they have lost six of 10 — their potential postseason competition has been winning. NL West-leading Arizona has won 21 of 27, while the Rockies have fallen into fourth place, seven games out of first. They are three games behind NL wild-card leader San Diego, but Philadelphia, Atlanta and the Dodgers sit between the Rockies and the wild-card berth.

And so with 39 games remaining on the schedule, a premium is suddenly being applied to what the Rockies have left, beginning with a homestand that would seem designed to rebuild confidence.

Tonight, Pittsburgh, sporting the worst record in the NL, checks in for a four-game series. Then Washington, the last-place team in the NL East, comes to town for three games this weekend.

"This easily could have been a good road trip," first baseman Todd Helton said.

But it wasn't. The Rockies lost four of six, late-inning failures denying them the chances to be 4-2.

"One of our best traits has been that we have been able to bounce back," Helton said. "We have to show we are able to do that."

For the Rockies, though, it will be how they play, more than who they are playing, that will be the deciding factor.

They just went 1-2 in back-to- back road series against NL West rivals San Diego and Los Angeles, letting a victory slip away in both series. There was a 6-2 lead that turned into an 11-9 loss at San Diego in the nightmarish moment of a nine-run, two-out fifth inning, as well as a 3-2 lead presented by Helton's home run in the top of the eighth Sunday that was erased by Ramon Martinez's two-run single in the bottom of that inning.

"We had a real good chance to get some ground made up, playing teams in our division," Helton said. "If we are going to get anywhere, we have to start doing it now."

Nobody's education has been quite as demanding of late than that of left-handed reliever Jeremy Affeldt, a salvation in the bullpen for so long but right in the middle of the good games gone bad during the recent trip.

He came on with a 6-5 lead in the fifth inning Thursday at San Diego. Five batters later, the Rockies were down 10-6. He had a 3-2 lead when he took over from right-hander Jorge Julio with two on and one out in the eighth Sunday. But after walking Jeff Kent on five pitches, he delivered a 2-1 pitch that Martinez sent into center for a two-run single that erased the edge.

"All losses are aggravating," Affeldt said. "As a competitor, you want to win no matter what month it is. This is frustrating, though. . . . I give 100 percent. I give my best."

Rockies starter Jeff Francis certainly was a lot better in the trip finale — two runs in six innings, and one of those runs was tainted — than he had been in giving up eight runs and retiring only 10 batters Tuesday at San Diego.

And Helton showed some offensive life, doubling in the fourth before unloading the two-run, go- ahead home run in the eighth. It wasn't enough Sunday.

But was it an omen of what's ahead?

"That's why we play the games," Helton said. "We'll see what happens the next couple of weeks."

ringolsbyt@RockyMountainNews.com