DENVER — With apologies to Yogi Berra, it ain’t never over at Coors Field.
The Dodgers were ready to grab the brooms from the mile-high grounds crew and sweep their way out of town, entering the seventh inning with a two-run lead in Wednesday night’s series finale, but the unpredictable late innings at high altitude saw a change in fortune as the Colorado Rockies battled back to tie the score in the seventh before an extra-inning sacrifice fly from Freddie Freeman gave the Dodgers the lead en route to a 6-4 win.
Freeman’s sac fly came after Teoscar Hernandez’s leadoff single in the 10th sent Andy Pages, the ghost runner, to third. Freeman plated Pages and Hernandez was able to advance to second on the fly before scoring on Mookie Betts’ third hit of the night – a single up the middle.
The game took a turn after the seventh-inning stretch, when reliever Alex Vesia entered the game with a 4-2 lead and got two quick outs before walking Jake McCarthy and giving up a 399-foot homer to right field from Mickey Moniak – who finished a triple shy of a cycle – to tie the score and erase a solid effort from starting pitcher Roki Sasaki.
The Dodgers went down in order in the eighth and ninth, but the Rockies could only muster a leadoff walk in the eighth and an infield hit after they challenged an out call in their final at-bats of regulation.
Shohei Ohtani was 0 for 4 with a walk, striking out in his final at-bat to snap his 22-game hitting streak at Coors Field.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts played a bit of a hunch when he kept struggling Kyle Tucker in the lineup while resting a number of veterans on Wednesday, and the hunch paid off. Tucker delivered a two-out single to right in the second inning, sending Betts to third and keeping the inning alive long enough for Kiké Hernandez to bring him home in the next at-bat with a single up the middle for a 1-0 lead.
The Dodgers extended their lead to 4-0 on a pair of fourth-inning homers from Betts and Kiké Hernandez, and Freeland left the game with neck tightness following Hernandez’s two-run shot. Tucker figured in the rally with a one-out single before Hernandez went deep.
Roki Sasaki pitched a solid five innings for the Dodgers, allowing two runs (both earned) on seven hits and a walk while striking out six. He faced traffic in every inning, running his pitch count up to 99, including 73 for strikes.
Tanner Scott came on for his second save in two nights, pitching a perfect 10th for his team-best 18th save after throwing 27 pitches during a four-out save on Tuesday.
The Dodgers remained unbeaten (4-0) in extra innings this season while wrapping up their National League-leading ninth series sweep.
It was the Dodgers’ ninth win in their last 10 games with the Rockies, and they improved to 100-39 (.719) against Colorado since 2018, the best record of any team with at least 60 games against a single opponent in that nearly nine-year span. They finish the season 10-3 against the Rockies, having swept them twice, also May 25-27 at home.
More to come on this story.