In what was their final series of the season at Coors Field, the Los Angeles Dodgers took two out of three from the Colorado Rockies, capping it off with a 5-1 victory on Wednesday afternoon.
In a rarity at Coors Field, the two National League West rivals were actually scoreless through eight innings. The Dodgers offense came alive in the ninth inning to change that.
Cody Bellinger got the rally started with a one-out walk, then Corey Seager followed with a single to set the stage for Will Smith.
The rookie catcher has proven to be clutch early into his big-league career, and Smith came through once again by launching a 449-foot, three-run home run to straightaway center field.
Smith now has five home runs in just 13 career games for the Dodgers, with three of them being of the go-ahead variety in the ninth inning. He’s the first player in the Modern Era (since 1900) to accomplish that feat.
The offense wasn’t done there though as later in the inning, Kristopher Negrón hit a two-run homer to extend the lead to 5-0 and effectively put the game out of reach. Negrón also went deep on Saturday night, so he has two home runs in as many games since coming over to the Dodgers in a trade from the Seattle Mariners.
While he didn’t leave the yard, Alex Verdugo also had a solid day at the plate to break out of his slump. Verdugo went into the game just 4-for-his-last-39, but he equaled that hit total on Wednesday with a 4-for-4 effort.
Hyun-Jin Ryu did not earn a win on the mound, but he turned in a solid outing, which was good to see considering he struggled at Coors Field the last time he pitched there. Ryu tossed six shutout innings while allowing just three hits to lower his season ERA to a Major-League leading 1.66.
