The Los Angeles Dodgers looked to continue to make up ground on the first-place Colorado Rockies on Friday night when the two teams opened up a three-game series at Coors Field.
They were able to do exactly that, with the offense exploding in an 11-8 victory to give Dennis Santana a win in his first Major League appearance.
The Dodgers offense wasted no time getting to Rockies starter Tyler Anderson as Chris Taylor led off the game with a triple and then was quickly cashed in on a sacrifice fly by Justin Turner. Matt Kemp continued to swing a hot bat, taking Anderson deep to give the Dodgers a 2-0 lead before Scott Alexander, the team’s starter for the day, took the mound.
Alexander, making his first career start, could not keep the Rockies off the scoreboard in the bottom of the first. D.J. Lemahieu led off the inning with a single and then later scored on a triple by Carlos Gonzalez. Alexander was able to get four outs before giving way to Santana.
Santana struggled in his first Major League inning, giving up three hits and three runs in addition to hitting the opposing pitcher, all with two outs. He settled in a bit from there though, tossing a 1-2-3 inning in the third and then giving up singular runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, also all with two outs in each inning.
Overall, Santana gave up six hits and five earned runs in 3.2 innings in his first career start, striking out four while walking one. His real damage came at the plate though, as in his first career at-bat he hit a two-run double to left field.
Trailing 6-5, the Dodgers put up a four-spot in the sixth inning to regain the lead at 9-6. Taylor hit an opposite-field three-run home run, and then later in the inning, Logan Forsythe hit a sacrifice fly with the bases load.
All that was left was for the Dodgers bullpen to close it out, and they did exactly that as Erik Goeddel, Yimi Garcia and Tony Cingrani combined to give up just one run on a solo home run by Nolan Arenado off of Garcia.
Kenley Jansen then came in to get a four-out save and quickly got out of the eighth. Yasiel Puig provided him with some insurance in the ninth with a two-run home run, which proved to be big as Jansen gave up a run in the ninth to complete the victory.
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