LOS ANGELES -- Alex Wood gave the Los Angeles Dodgers a dominating performance worthy of Clayton Kershaw or Zack Greinke.
Wood pitched one-hit ball for eight innings on just 78 pitches and retired his last 19 batters on Wednesday night in a 2-0 victory over the Colorado Rockies.
A.J. Ellis homered and rookie Corey Seager had an RBI single for the the Dodgers, whose 17th victory in 22 games reduced their magic number for clinching the NL West title to 10.
Wood (11-10) struck out five and walked none. Kyle Parker's clean two-out single to right-center field in the second was the only hit against the 24-year-old left-hander, whose only complete game in 64 big league starts was on April 17, 2014, when he pitched eight innings in a 1-0 loss at Philadelphia while with the Atlanta Braves.
The game took just 2 hours, 8 minutes. Tuesday night's game between the same teams took 5:23 and lasted 16 innings.
"Wood did a really good job of controlling the game and the tempo," said Nolan Arenado, whose 39th home run won the middle game of the series for the Rockies. "He threw a lot of strikes, and threw some pitches that looked like strikes and then just dropped right off. We didn't do a very good job of giving him a hard time. `'
Wood lasted only 1 2/3 innings last Friday at Arizona after giving up six runs and eight hits. In his start before that, Wood threw seven innings of three-hit ball in a 2-0 win at San Diego. The last time he faced the Rockies, on June 12 with the Braves, he surrendered seven runs and 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings.
"He wanted to atone for the hole he put us in that first game in Arizona," Ellis said. "Tonight he was economical with his pitch count, he had some putaway pitches when he needed them, and he kept making them hit it on the ground.
"He was working in positive counts, which helps him a lot. He was working ahead and he was able to get his fastball to both sides of the plate, which was something he had struggled with in previous outings. So this was as good as I've seen that."
Kenley Jansen got three outs for his 32nd save in 34 chances, allowing a two-out single by Charlie Blackmon.
Jorge De La Rosa (9-7) went the distance, allowing six hits over eight innings with five strikeouts and a walk. It was his second complete game in 217 career starts.
Ellis, reduced to a backup role behind the plate this season after the acquisition of Yasmani Grandal from San Diego in the trade for Matt Kemp, opened the scoring in the second inning when he drove a 3-2 pitch into the pavilion in left field for his sixth home run.
Seager increased the margin to 2-0 in the sixth with an RBI single that scored Austin Barnes, who began the inning with a double. Barnes, a catcher by trade, started at second base and batted in the leadoff spot in manager Don Mattingly's patchwork lineup.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Rockies: Slugging RF Carlos Gonzalez did not start, after going 0 for 7 with four strikeouts in Tuesday night's marathon and fouling a pitch hard off his right foot in the 16th inning. He pinch-hit in the ninth and struck out for the final out.
Dodgers: SS Jimmy Rollins was still feeling residual pain in his right index finger during a workout and Mattingly said it would be several days before he could get back in the lineup. He has been relegated to pinch-running duty on three occasions since he sustained the injury on Sept.6. "The hitting didn't bother him at all, and we think he's going to be able to pinch-hit," Mattingly said.
UP NEXT
Rockies: RHP Chad Bettis (7-5) gets the assignment Friday night against San Diego in the opener of the season's final homestand, a 10-game stretch that concludes with three games against the Dodgers.
Dodgers: Greinke (17-3) will face Pittsburgh's Jeff Locke on Friday night in the opener of a three-game set with Pittsburgh at Chavez Ravine. Greinke leads the majors with a 1.61 ERA and .190 opponents' batting average, and is 12-1 in his last 14 starts.
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