LOS ANGELES — Dalton Rushing keeps finding himself in the middle of the action for the Dodgers. Sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.
Both at the plate and in the field, Rushing was there for the better on Monday night.
Rushing drove in the winning run with a broken-bat single in the bottom of the 11th inning to save the Dodgers after a bullpen meltdown, lifting them to an 8-7 walk-off win against the Colorado Rockies in the opener of a three-game series.
The Dodgers entered the ninth with a 6-3 lead, but the Rockies rallied against closer Tanner Scott promptly and swiftly. With one out, Ezequiel Tovar walked, Willi Castro singled and Kyle Karros followed with an RBI double into the right-center gap to cut the deficit to 6-4.
Scott intentionally walked Hunter Goodman to load the bases and looked like he might escape when he struck out T.J. Rumfield to put the Dodgers one out away from the win.
Instead, Cole Carigg drilled a Scott slider for two-run double into the right-center gap to bring Castro and Karros home and tie the score. Goodman tried to score from first for the go-ahead run on the play and was initially ruled safe, but the Dodgers challenged and the call was overturned when replay review showed Miguel Rojas’ relay throw and Rushing’s tag were just in time for the out. The Rockies then challenged that Rushing was blocking the plate, but the out call was upheld and the inning ended.
Still, the damage was done. Scott’s blown save forced the Dodgers to play their first extra-inning game of the season.
The Rockies took the lead in the 10th on an RBI groundout by Jake McCarthy. Carigg slid in safely just ahead of the throw and made contact with Rushing on the play. The two exchanged words and the dugouts emptied, but order was quickly restored and no one was ejected.
The Dodgers tied the score in the bottom of the 10th when Mookie Betts’ hard liner up the middle deflected off the glove of second baseman Eduoard Julien and trickled into center field, allowing Andy Pages to score from third. They had a prime chance to end the game with runners on first and second and one out, but Rockies reliever Jimmy Herget snagged Teoscar Hernandez’s hard line drive back up the middle and threw to first for an inning-ending double play.
After being in the middle of two big moments defensively in the late innings, Rushing finished it with his bat. With one out, he sent Jimmy Herget’s pitch past the diving Julien and into center field to bring home Hernandez with the winning run, and save the Dodgers from a painful, extra-inning loss.
More to come on this story.