Another tough one for Broxton, but he was a standup guy afterward. This guy is going to have a long, successful career in the majors and eventually be a closer. For a 23-year-old to be going through what he is going through (five HR in his past nine IP, three of them game-winners) and come back after Hawpe’s shot tonight to dominate the next three batters, it says something about his makeup. He is an easy guy to root for. … Gonzo went 1 for 5 and needs one more hit for 2,500. … Kent had five PAs tonight. Three more and his option for next season vests. He could still retire, but this guy still really, really wants that ring he came so tantalizingly close to getting with the Giants in 2002, and the potential is there for this team to be pretty good next year. My guess is he’s coming back. My other guess is we won’t know for sure until sometime over the winter. … Dodgers fall to 79-73, and they now trail the Rockies by a game. Rockies are confident and playing well, Dodgers are, well, not. Looks like the boys are headed for a fourth-place finish. … Dodgers went 5 for 22 w/RISP tonight. This on a night when they had 41 total ABs. Twenty-two ABs with runners in scoring position, and they get five hits and five runs. Maybe this one wasn’t Broxton’s fault, after all.

… but before we get to that, let me say I am seriously considering putting Matt Holliday’s name in the No. 1 spot on my National League MVP ballot. It has to have 10 names, ranked 1 through 10, with each vote counting in inverse order, i.e., a first-place vote counts for 10 points, a 10th-place vote for one point. I know the Rockies probably aren’t going to the playoffs, but this guy is having an incredible season — and an incredible series so far (7 for 11, 3 HRs, a double and six RBI). He has 2 HR’s already tonight and drove Juan Pierre to the wall in dead center in this third AB. He leads the league in hitting, has 35 HRs, leads the league in RBI, leads the league in hits (204), leads the league in total bases (367), leads the league in doubles (48), leads the league in extra-base hits (86) and is hitting a league-best .384 in day games. Sounds like an MVP to me. … Dodgers just tied the game on a bases-loaded single by Brad Penny and still have the bases jammed with nobody out. Jeremy Affeldt coming on now for the Rox. … Ddogers 4, Rockies 4, top 6

By Tony Jackson
Staff Writer
DENVER — Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal was still unavailable on Wednesday night because of lower back tightness. But club officials said he was feeling better than he was on Tuesday, when the problem knocked him out of the first game of a doubleheader after six innings and prevented him from playing at all in the nightcap.
The issue was still preventing Furcal from swinging a bat, a fact that probably makes it highly unlikely he will play in this afternoon’s series finale at Colorado even though no one was willing to say that.
“It doesn’t seem to be real serious,” Dodgers trainer Stan Conte said. “But he still doesn’t have full motion, and he still isn’t able to make all the movements he needs to, especially swinging. So we’ll hold him out until he is ready to do stuff like that.”
With the Dodgers apparently on the brink of elimination from the playoff hunt — they went into the evening with a magic number of eight to be knocked out of the wild card — there is a remote possibility Furcal has played his final game. Furcal suffered a severely sprained ankle in a collision with outfielder Jason Repko during the next-to-last week of spring training that still hasn’t fully healed and probably won’t until he can rest it for several weeks.
Thus, even if Furcal is able to return from the back injury, the question will have to be asked at that time whether there is a reason for him to do so — especially if it happens during what figures to be a meaningless, season-ending series with last-place San Francisco.
But Conte seemed to dismiss that idea.
“If we’re unfortunate enough to not be playing in meaningful games, then we have about 10 guys who could benefit from (sitting out),” Conte said.

Still his: The Dodgers have used seven different starting third basemen this season, and not one of them has started more than 40 games at the position. Manager Grady Little said he hopes to leave spring training next year with one primary third baseman, adding that the position still belongs for now to veteran Nomar Garciaparra.
Garciaparra, who is signed through next season, has hit .381 this year with runners in scoring position, but just .246 in all other situations. Tony Abreu, who started at short in place of Furcal on Wednesday, and Andy LaRoche are among the organization’s brightest prospects, but until one of them takes it away, Garciaparra is still the guy.
“As of now, Nomar would have to be the incumbent,” Little said. “He has had a tough season this year, but hopefully, he can get it turned around.”
Abreu and LaRoche, each of whom is in his first big-league season, also have struggled. Abreu is hitting .267. LaRoche is batting .193 and has struck out 15 times in 57 at-bats.

Not sure: Bill Mueller reluctantly accepted the Dodgers’ hitting coach job on an interim basis, stepping down from his spot as a special assistant to general manager Ned Colletti, after Eddie Murray was fired on June 14. Two weeks later, Mueller reluctantly accepted the job for the rest of the season.
Now, as that season winds to a close, Mueller isn’t sure whether he wants to keep the job beyond this season.
“I have to talk to Grady and Ned,” Mueller said. “It’s not my decision, and I don’t know what their decision is, and I don’t want to get into that during the season. It’s a non-issue. All that matters right now is preparing for a game each day.”
Mueller did say he has found a comfort level in the job, but he wouldn’t go as far as saying that comfort level has given him renewed interest in keeping the position. It is believed Mueller would simply return to the front office if he didn’t remain as hitting coach.
“Having a routine has made it a little easier for me,” Mueller said. “I think people function better with routines, but for me, it took a little while to find one.”

I told a colleague as the nightcap headed to the bottom of the ninth that I had a bad feeling about this game. But after Saito retired the first two in the ninth, I figured I was wrong. Nope. I was right. Holliday singled, Helton homered and the Dodgers were left to try to pad their record as win as many games as they can before this once-promising season comes to an inevitable end a week from Sunday. They’re not mathematically eliminated yet, but that’s a little like me saying I still have a chance to date Jessica Alba before I die because I haven’t died yet. But it could be worse. The boys are going to have a winning season. They would have to go 2-9 the rest of the way to not finish above .500, and even that would leave them 81-81, which is a whole lot better than where they finished just two years ago when they went 71-91 and everybody got fired, even though it took Frank and Jamie a good month to get around to canning DePo. It’s possible that a few heads could roll after this one, too, but I have serious doubts that those heads will belong to either Grady or Ned — and I have a strong opinion that says neither of those heads SHOULD belong to either Grady or Ned. And I still think there is a LOT of promise for 2008, when some of these kids who have gotten their rookie growing pains out of the way early over the past couple of years truly become bona fide big leaguers. The guess here is that there will be a lot of magic in this franchise over the next four or five years. And for those of you who shell out your 50 cents every day to read yours truly in the print edition, well, for the 12 days that are left of THIS season, expect most of that coverage to focus largely on NEXT season. … Good night, all. And sleep well, because there isn’t much of a reason to toss and turn anymore.

Furcal has lower back tightness and is day to day, but he’ll miss tonight’s game. Another big blow to the Dodgers, who are offering fewer and fewer reasons to keep believing. Anyway …

CF Pierre
2B Abreu
RF Kemp
LF Gonzo
3B Nomar
1B Loney
SS Martinez
C Lieberthal
LH Wells

By Tony Jackson
Staff Writer
DENVER — The Dodgers got another step closer to the edge of the cliff this afternoon, plodding their way to a 3-1 loss to the Colorado Rockies in the first game of a split doubleheader at Coors Field. But that wasn’t where the bad news ended.
Shortstop Rafael Furcal, one of four players manager Grady Little had intended to write into the starting lineup of both games, left after six innings with tightness in his lower back. Furcal has battled a sore left ankle all season, but has no history of back problems.
Little said Furcal, who won’t be available for tonight’s game, hurt himself sliding into a base over the weekend.
“He is a guy who has played through a lot of aches and pains,” Little said. “But this just got too bad for him to take later in the game.”
Furcal is listed as day to day. If he misses significant time, it will be an even bigger dent in the Dodgers’ already-fading playoff hopes. They began the day trailing Arizona by four games in the National League West and San Diego by three in the wildcard standings, with both of those clubs scheduled to play later. Philadelphia, just 1 1/2 behind the Padres in the wild card, also plays tonight.
The Dodgers (79-71) now lead the fourth-place Rockies by just a game the division.
Chad Billingsley (11-5) started strong, facing the minimum through the first three innings, but he later said he never felt comfortable. He gave up just four hits and struck out six, but he also walked three batters (one intentionally) and was lifted after throwing 102 pitches in 5 1/3 innings. He lost for the first time since Aug. 13.
“I didn’t feel like I had my good fastball,” Billingsley said. “I was just trying to make good, quality pitches down in the zone and trying to get ground balls, but it just didn’t happen. I just went out there and battled to try to get outs as quickly as possible, but they laid off some good pitches and made me get deep in counts.”
The Dodgers’ only run came on a pinch-hit home run by Olmedo Saenz in the seventh inning, his first homer since a walkoff shot on June 8 vs. Toronto. The Rockies got leadoff doubles by Cory Sullivan in both the fourth and sixth innings, with Sullivan scoring each time, and put the game away on Joe Koshansky’s RBI double off Scott Proctor in the seventh.
The Dodgers went hitless in seven at-bats with runners in scoring position, and left-hander Jeff Francis (16-8), despite leaving with two outs in the seventh inning, became the first Rockies pitcher in more than four years to post 10 strikeouts in a game.
“His changeup was outstanding,” Little said. “That was the difference maker.”
Manuel Corpas pitched a perfect ninth for his 15th save. LaTroy Hawkins, Brian Fuentes and Corpas combined to retire the final seven Dodgers batters in order.

Starting today through Sept. 24, you can now “register for the opportunity,” according to today’s official game notes, to purchase tickets for any NLDS action at Dodger Stadium. To do so, go to dodgers.com, as THERE WILL BE NO TICKETS FOR SALE ON-SITE AT DODGER STADIUM, THROUGH TICKETMASTER OR VIA TELEPHONE.. Applicants must fill out and submit a registration form on dodgers.com to have the chance to purchase tickets. The rules of this thing are kind of complex and difficult for my feeble mind to comprehend or translate, so you might want to go to dodgers.com and read them for yourself. But you should also know that one in our midst asked Grady in his pregame session a few minutes ago how many more games he thinks the Dodgers will have to win to get into the playoffs, and he guessed 10. That’s out of the 13 games the Dodgers have left. So good luck.