DENVER -- It took a little longer Wednesday night, but the Dodgers educated Rockies rookie Noah Davis again.

The right-hander was fine through four innings, with four strikeouts and the only blemish being James Outman¡¯s third-inning leadoff home run. But Davis retired just one of the seven batters he faced in the fifth before departing on the hook for the Rockies¡¯ 8-2 loss at Coors Field.

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Compared to his Major League debut last Oct. 5, Davis had a lengthy run of success. Then-Dodger Cody Bellinger smacked a home run on Davis¡¯ second Major League pitch, when he picked a similar location as his first.

Davis, 26, who has made four trips to the Majors this season and dealt with an early-season right elbow injury, had a respectable 4.50 ERA in 14 starts with Triple-A Albuquerque. His last stint, he went 1-1 with a 3.16 ERA and held batters to a .174 average over six starts.

But he concluded his season with losses to the Cubs (five innings, three runs) and Dodgers (4 1/3 innings, four runs) and some valuable information.

¡°You run into guys in the Minor Leagues that you can hammer with the same pitch over and over, and wait for them to make an adjustment,¡± Davis said. ¡°But when you¡¯re facing Freddie Freeman or Mookie Betts, you throw them the same pitch, maybe you get a swing and miss the first time, but the second time they¡¯re on it.

¡°I even noticed that last year in my debut. I enjoy the chess match part of it. It feels like a different game, but I like it.¡±

The Rockies were checkmated for the 101st time this season. They¡¯ve been outmaneuvered from the beginning, but since the All-Star break they¡¯ve been sending lesser-experienced players like Davis to the board against teams like the Dodgers -- who will try to master the game in the postseason.

Reliever Tommy Doyle, recalled Wednesday from Triple-A, bailed Davis out in the fifth and threw 1 2/3 scoreless, but Nick Mears yielded three in 1 2/3 innings and Justin Lawrence -- struggling at the conclusion of his first full big league season -- yielded a towering three-run shot to Freeman.

Manager Bud Black saw the attributes Davis can enhance and the foibles he must reduce. The outing proved Black¡¯s pregame point that Davis needs to become more efficient.

¡°Noah¡¯s capable, because he has good feel for the ball,¡± Black said. ¡°He can spin the baseball. The fastball is a solid pitch for him, 93-95 mph -- in this day and age, that¡¯s solid. He¡¯s just got to be a little more consistent in the strike zone with all his pitches.

¡°Another thing: Pitches to his arm side -- in to a righty, away to a lefty -- he has to improve there, too.¡±

Acquired from the Reds in July 2021, Davis came dependent on breaking pitches, especially his slider. The Rockies have urged him to sharpen his fastball, and he has a sinker and a cutter. Wednesday, he leaned on the sinker, cutter and curveball while he admittedly had no feel for the slider.

The Dodgers took advantage. Pitch locations on the fifth-inning hits, especially a double by David Peralta after Outman¡¯s single, were not pinpoint.

Originally recalled on April 16, Davis threw five scoreless innings with five strikeouts at Seattle in his first Major League start and had his moments in a start at Philadelphia (4 2/3 innings, two runs, five strikeouts). But the elbow problem flared in his next start, and his other work was not particularly strong. The last two starts showed progress that must continue if he¡¯s to be a part of the rotation or the depth picture in 2024.

¡°I definitely feel like I'm a much better pitcher now than I was in April,¡± Davis said. ¡°I just need to keep working toward getting it all together -- being able to go out there and throw 100 competitive pitches, get us into the seventh inning. I definitely look at it as a learning year. I didn¡¯t have as much on-field success as I would have hoped, but I think I¡¯ve shown flashes of what I can do.¡±