Rockies Beat Dodgers in 11th : Baseball: Castilla’s sacrifice fly brings in the winning run. A bases-loaded double play erase’s L.A.’s chances in the 10th.

In a Dodger season sliding into tedium, this was one matchup that provided a little bit of potential combustibility.

Monday night, in a game between two teams that were a combined 52 1/2 games behind the division-leading San Francisco Giants when the day started, the air was thick and the mood relatively apprehensive.

Not about the game score, of course. This was going to be about evening scores, exchanging tit-for-tat, retaliation for long-held grudges.

The Dodgers neither got into or put up much of a fight against the Colorado Rockies, losing, 3-2, in 11 innings before 31,953 at Dodger Stadium.

Vinny Castilla’s sacrifice fly in the 11th scored Jerald Clark in the first meeting between the Dodgers and the Rockies since their June brawl at Denver, which was complete with kick-slides, purpose pitches, raging rhetoric, suspensions and one major injury to Dodger second baseman Jody Reed, who sat out for a month after Andres Galarraga kicked him in the arm sliding at second base.

Monday night, they played a lot of baseball but stayed away from the wrestling matches.

“It’s forgotten,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “I’m telling you, the thing is forgotten.”

It seemed to be. There were no visible signs of a feud during the game, no dark glances, inside pitches or hard slides.

The intimidation possibilities were minimized by the pitching matchup: curveball specialist Greg Harris for the Rockies, and knuckleballer Tom Candiotti for the Dodgers.

But, for the Dodgers, losing in their home park against a team that had already lost 74 games, was without its best two hitters, and had the league-worst earned-run average of 5.90, wasn’t exactly a glorious result.

The Dodgers had a chance to win it in the bottom of the 10th after Brett Butler’s one-out triple, but, after two walks, Eric Karros bounced into a pitcher-catcher-first baseman double play to end the inning.

After the game, Lasorda denied any suggestion that his team was losing because of a general lack of intensity on the field.

“It’s not lack of intensity--do you think it’s lack of intensity?” Lasorda yelled. “If you think it’s lack of intensity, you’re wrong. It’s not lack of intensity. These guys are trying their very best, and there’s no way you can say a lack of intensity, because you’re wrong.

“Who feels worse than Karros right now? You think he didn’t want to win the game? Nobody wanted it more than him. You can say it’s lack of execution, and you would be right. But you can’t criticize these guys for lack of effort.”

Harris, acquired from the San Diego Padres July 26, held the Dodgers to one run through seven innings.

But the Dodgers made the score 2-2 in the eighth on back-to-back singles by Butler and Jose Offerman, and a slow ground ball by Eric Davis that first baseman Clark couldn’t handle, scoring Butler.

A double-steal put Offerman and Davis at second and third with one out and Karros at the plate. But Karros hit a one-hopper back to Harris and Henry Rodriguez flied to center to end the inning.

A diving catch in left-center field by Butler on an Alex Cole line drive kept the Rockies from threatening in the top of the ninth, and into extra innings the two teams went.

The Rockies, with Galarraga and his league-leading .392 average on the disabled list and veteran third baseman Charlie Hayes on the bench because of a jammed right wrist, threw the power of Robert Mejia, Pedro Castellano, Castilla and Co. at the Dodgers.

It was enough to get them into the eighth inning with a 2-1 lead, including a slew of opportunities to make it more than that. The Rockies, on an assortment of soft line drives, Dodger errors, walks, swinging bunts and intentional bunts, had chances to break open the game in the first, fourth, fifth and sixth innings.

But instead of pouncing on the opportunities, the Rockies left seven runners stranded in the first seven innings.

Davis put the Dodgers ahead against Harris in the third inning, 1-0, with a solo home run, his 12th, to center field.

The Rockies answered with a solo home run by Castellano in the fourth and took a 2-1 lead in the sixth on a run-scoring ground ball from Dante Bichette.