DENVER — Coors Field lived up to its mile-high expectations as the Dodgers exploded out of their team-wide slump, scoring 11 runs on 14 hits in the opener of a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies. Shohei Ohtani homered twice, as the Dodgers beat the Rockies for the seventh time in their last eight games this season, taking an early lead and riding it to an 11-5 win.
Mookie Betts got the Dodgers on the scoreboard with an RBI double in the second, following Max Muncy’s leadoff walk.
Muncy came back to the plate in the following frame, putting the capper on a rally started by Ohtani’s one-out infield single to second. A pair of singles from Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages plated Ohtani, and Muncy cleared the bases with a towering 461-foot three-run homer to the second deck in right field – the longest Dodgers home run of the season – giving them a five-run lead before the Rockies had yet to register a hit.
Blake Snell allowed one run in six innings as he notched his first win of the season in just his third start, having missed most of the season with loose bodies in his left elbow. He retired the first six Rockies he faced with no balls leaving the infield until the third.
Snell opened the third by walking three in a row to load the bases, then gave up a run on a fielder’s choice groundout from Jake McCarthy before retiring the side without further damage.
The Dodgers added to their cushion in the fifth with an Ohtani opposite field-leadoff home run and an RBI groundout from Betts to plate Andy Pages after he laced a one-out double down the left field line.
Ohtani improved to 7 for 11 (.636) with four homers against Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano. He added a two-run shot off reliever Juan Mejia in the three-run sixth, marking his 25th career multi-homer game and his first against the Rockies. He finished the game going 4 for 5 with two homers, two singles, three runs and three RBIs.
Back-to-back singles from Pages and Muncy accounted for a third run in the sixth, and Freeman’s RBI double in the eighth brought Ohtani home to close the Dodgers’ scoring.
Snell’s only hiccup were the three walks in the third – his only walks of the game. Beyond that, he allowed just two hits while striking out five. He threw 90 pitches, 64 for strikes, while lowering his ERA to 3.60.
Struggling closer Edwin Diaz pitched the ninth and had another shaky outing, facing eight batters and allowing three runs on four hits while hitting one batter.
More to come on this story.
