Zach Lee made his third start of the spring on Wednesday afternoon as the Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the division rival Colorado Rockies at Camelback Ranch. Colorado sent right-hander Chad Bettis to the mound to oppose Lee.
The right-hander got off to a quick start, as he retired the Rockies in order in the top half of the first on two ground outs and a fly out.
Bettis issued a leadoff walk to Andre Ethier to begin his first inning of work. Ethier was in the leadoff spot for the first time in his big league career. After Justin Turner doubled, Chase Utley grounded out, scoring Ethier and giving the Dodgers a 1-0 lead through one.
After neither team was able to muster any offense in the second, Lee surrendered his first hit of the game on a two-out single to Noel Cuevas in the third. Cuevas also represented the Rockies’ first baserunner of the game as Lee hadn’t so much as walked a batter.
Lee ended that streak as he walked Charlie Blackmon to put two on with no outs. Nothing came of it for Colorado, however, as Yasiel Puig tracked down a slicing Cristhian Adames fly ball to end the inning.
The Rockies were finally able to get to Lee in the fourth, as Gerardo Parra led the inning off with a double. That was followed by a Nolan Arenado RBI single, tying the game at 1-1.
CONTINUE READING: Yasiel Puig hits first home run of Spring Training
That marked the end of Lee’s day as Adam Liberatore came on in relief. Lee gave up three hits and one run in three-plus innings of work.
Liberatore retired the first two batters faced, then received help from Yasmani Grandal, who threw out Arenado on his stolen base attempt to end the inning.
Not long after Major League Baseball announced the conclusion of their investigation into Puig, the Cuban native hit his first home run of Spring Training.
Yimi Garcia entered in the fifth and allowed a one-out double to Tony Wolters. He then scored on a Justin Turner throwing error after fielding a Cuevas bunt single. Garcia retired the next two batters to strand Cuevas and keep the game tied at 2-2.
Christian Bergman replaced Betts in the bottom of the fifth and set the Dodgers down in order. Arenado hit a ball too hot to handle for Brandon Hicks at third base, resulting in a one-out double in the sixth inning.
Julio Urias then allowed an RBI single to Ben Paulsen that gave the Rockies a 3-2 lead. Utley led off the bottom of the sixth with a ground-rule double, then scored two batters later on Shawn Zarraga’s RBI single.
Urias remained in the game in the seventh and retired the side in order. Colorado ran into some trouble in the bottom half of the inning as Elian Herrera reached on an error, then advanced to second base with no outs on a Bergman wild pitch.
Following a Rico Noel walk, Howie Kendrick grounded into a force out, leaving runners on the corners with one out. Brandon Hicks broke up the tie with a sacrifice fly to left field before Bergman could get out of the inning.
The Dodgers added to their lead in the eighth behind a Herrera two-run base hit and Carlos Estevez’s wild pitch, which allowed another pair of runs to score. Ian Thomas tossed a scoreless ninth inning to wrap up the Dodgers’ 7-3 win.