DENVER — Coors Field is perfectly suited for the kind of milestone J.D. Martinez was chasing – not so much for the kind of history with which Clayton Kershaw flirted Tuesday night.

Kershaw retired the first 12 batters in order and took a no-hitter into the sixth inning at Coors Field which has yielded just one no-hitter in its 28-year history (Hideo Nomo’s for the Dodgers in 1996). Meanwhile, Martinez hit two home runs, reaching 300 for his career, as the Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-0.

But Kershaw came out of the game just one out (a pickoff) after giving up the only hit he allowed, seeming to gesture to Dodgers manager Dave Roberts as he reached the dugout that he was done after 79 pitches (his lowest total since his first start of the season).

“I just didn’t feel great overall. That last inning kind of got to me,” Kershaw said after the game, holding his youngest son in his right arm. “Obviously not a lot of pitches. Definitely should have gone deeper in the game. Feel bad about making the bullpen cover three (innings). I just needed to come out there.

“It’s just something where I was trying to do the right thing. I think I did.”

Kershaw has a well-documented history of recurring back issues but has also been sidelined by shoulder and elbow injuries in the past few years. But he would not be specific about what was bothering him Tuesday.

“We’ll kind of see tomorrow,” he said. “I don’t think it’s too serious. I don’t think I’ll miss a start.

“Let me get to tomorrow and figure everything out. I’m not trying to be sneaky. I’m just trying to get through tomorrow and see where I’m at. Maybe there’s nothing to report. That’ll be good.”

Kershaw is the only member of the Dodgers’ season-opening starting rotation not to go on the injured list yet this year.

With their rotation depleted by injury, the Dodgers have leaned on Kershaw over the past month. He went seven innings in three of his previous four starts, throwing at least 96 pitches in all four. He allowed just four runs in 33 innings in June.

“Right now, I’m not concerned,” Roberts said. “We’ve been riding him a lot. If you look at his last few starts, I think we’ve pushed him a lot and so tonight, whatever it was, I just think there was some fatigue that set in.

“We had a good conversation (after the sixth inning) and we felt that was the right thing to do to kind of pass the baton and move forward.”

Martinez supplied most of the offense, becoming the 156th player in baseball history to hit 300 career home runs, joining a group that includes teammate Freddie Freeman (now at 306 after reaching 300 last month).

Home run No. 299 came in the third inning off of Rockies starter Connor Seabold with one out and a runner on. Martinez drove a 1-and-1 fastball over the high wall in right field.

He led off the sixth inning with his milestone homer, sending the first pitch he saw from lefty reliever Brad Hand over the wall in left field and setting up another post-game champagne toast. The Dodgers have celebrated three other milestones that way this season – Kershaw’s 200th career win, Freeman’s 300th home run and, just Sunday, Freeman’s 2,000th career hit.

“It’s a blessing,” Martinez said of his achievement. “Honestly, from where I started, with my whole story of getting released by Houston and getting the chance, an opportunity, with Detroit, and them believing in me, and the help of Craig (Wallenbrock, hitting instructor) and Robert (Van Scoyoc, Dodgers’ hitting coach) kind of changing my whole career. It means a lot to us.

“At that time, I would have never guessed it. But it’s a blessing.”

If Martinez reaching 300 career home runs seemed inevitable, Kershaw flirting with a no-hitter at Coors Field was unexpected. The veteran left-hander entered the game with a 4.82 ERA in 26 previous career starts at altitude and had ended just two of those without giving up a run.

It hadn’t gotten better recently either. Kershaw allowed 17 runs in 15 innings over three starts at Coors Field the past two seasons.

But he breezed through the Rockies’ lineup for six stress-free innings Tuesday. He walked Elias Diaz to start the sixth inning and gave up a single to No. 9 hitter Brenton Doyle with two outs in the sixth. A hard ground ball to third baseman Max Muncy’s left just made it into left field to end Kershaw’s no-hit bid.

Diaz was erased in a double play and Kershaw picked Doyle off first base to end the sixth inning having faced the minimum 18 batters.

“This is a place where I don’t want to give any credit for not pitching well but I haven’t pitched well here in a while,” Kershaw said. “So it was good to have a good outing here.

“It was a little bit more of a mental (adjustment), like, ‘Hey, it’s the same.’ Just mentally keep going. Don’t think anything different. Just can’t be tentative. That’s the biggest thing. Obviously, I had one walk today. I’ve said this before, the homers don’t kill you here. It’s the walk-walk-blooper-homer that kills you. So just not to do that.”

He didn’t go back out for the seventh – but he would have if not for Doyle’s single.

“I definitely would have kept pitching if I had a no-hitter,” Kershaw said. “For sure.”

The bullpen finished off a three-hit shutout with three scoreless innings, continuing that group’s turnaround. Phil Bickford loaded the bases with walks in the ninth but Dodgers relievers have been charged with just one earned run over their past 31⅓ innings.

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