The Los Angeles Dodgers welcomed the second-place Colorado Rockies to town for a three-game series beginning Friday night and showed them why they are still the heavy favorites to win the National League West for the seventh straight season, coming away with a 4-2 walk-off victory.
Walker Buehler got the start on the mound, having fared well against the Rockies in the past. He most notably tossed a gem in Game 163 at Dodger Stadium a year ago to clinch the NL West title.
He was magnificent once again, throwing his first career Major League complete game while striking out a career-high 16 batters. He gave up just two solo home runs and a single without issuing any walks.
Buehler did not have to pitch out of a stretch until the ninth inning. With one on and two outs at that point, Buehler struck out NL MVP candidate Nolan Arenado to end the inning and finish his night with an exclamation point.
While Buehler was unquestionably great, the Dodgers offense did not give him much run support and the game went into the bottom of the ninth inning tied at two.
The first two batters of the inning got out but then Max Muncy drew a walk to bring up Matt Beaty, who was just recalled before the game with Josh Sborz going on the 10-day injured list.
Beaty put together an outstanding at-bat against Rockies reliever Jairo Diaz, resulting in a two-run walk-off home run to straightaway center field. The home run was just the second of Beaty’s young career.
Earlier in the game, Cody Bellinger also hit a home run to center field off Rockies starter German Marquez, which was one of the only mistakes the right-hander made in his eight innings of work as he matched Buehler pitch for pitch.
Bellinger now has 25 home runs on the second, which is the second-most in baseball behind only Christian Yelich. Bellinger only hit 25 homers in 162 games played last season.
