After a rough weekend and overall greater struggles over the last 10 weeks, the Los Angeles Dodgers looked to bounce back against the Colorado Rockies in the hitter’s paradise of Coors Field.
Working in their favor is that the Dodgers entered with the best road record in baseball at 37-25 (.597), and since the start of the 2023 season, the Dodgers are 38-11 (.776) against the Rockies, including a 17-8 mark (.680) at Coors Field in that time.
Colorado hasn’t won a series with Los Angeles since June 27-29, 2022 and L.A. has taken six of the last seven this season. The Dodgers also entered 7-3 against the Rockies this season and 23-17 (.575) in 40 games vs. the National League West.
Dodgers 11, Rockies 5: key takeaways
Dodgers offense breaks out
The Dodgers offense has been among the worst in baseball since the start of June, and their struggles became even greater in July and August, but Coors Field presented them with a great opportunity to get back on track.
Although it’s only one game, the offense finally showed signs of their talent, scoring 10 runs on 12 hits, including three home runs.
They started the scoring in the second inning with a leadoff walk from Max Muncy and RBI double from Mookie Betts. In the third, they added on four more runs as Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages hit consecutive singles to make it a 2-0 game.
Then, with the two runners on, Muncy slugged a three-run homer to give the Dodgers a 5-0 lead.
The Dodgers slugged their second homer of the game when Ohtani hit a solo shot in the fifth. Ohtani also hit his second homer of the game in the sixth inning after a single from Tommy Edman that gave the Dodgers a 9-1 lead.
But before Ohtani’s second homer, the Dodgers continued adding to their lead in the fifth as Pages doubled and scored when Mookie Betts grounded out to put the Dodgers up 7-1.
After Ohtani’s second homer, Pages singled home Freeman, who reached on a double. That was Freeman’s first extra-base hit since the start of the month, ending an 18-game drought that was the longest of his career.
Freeman also doubled in his next at-bat, which came in the eighth inning and scored Ohtani, who reached on a single. Ohtani finished the game 4-for-5 with four runs scored and three RBI.
Each of Ohtani, Freeman, Pages and Muncy had multi-hit games as the Dodgers tallied 14 in total.
The Dodgers scoring 11 runs is the first time they’ve scored at least 10 runs in a game since July 2 against the San Diego Padres when they scored 12.
Despite the Dodgers’ success, Kyle Tucker continued to struggle, posting an 0-for-5 game while also dropping a routine fly ball in right field.
Blake Snell turns in another strong start
Blake Snell was on the mound for his second start since coming off the injured list, and he turned in another excellent start. The left-hander tossed six innings of one-run ball while giving up just two hits and striking out five.
He did run into trouble during two of his innings, but in typical Blake Snell fashion, he worked out of the jams he put himself in.
Snell started the game with six up and six down, but then walked the first three hitters he faced in the third inning to load the bases. The Rockies scored one on a force out, and then Snell retired the next two hitters to limit the damage to one run.
In the fourth, Snell allowed a pair of one-out singles, but then finished off the inning with a strikeout and pop out to prevent any more damage.
Snell lowered his season ERA to 3.60 in 15 innings, and he has made back-to-back starts of six innings with one earned run allowed.
Edwin Diaz pitched the ninth and allowed three runs to score.
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