LOS ANGELES — That was suitably dismissive.
After a week of playing down to – and then slightly lower than – their last-place opponents, the Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies with a 9-0 victory on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers outscored the Rockies 19-3 in the three-game series. Their starting pitchers (Tyler Glasnow, Emmet Sheehan and Blake Snell) took the lead, combining to allow just two runs on five hits and five walks while striking out 31 in 20 innings.
If the dominant starting pitching wasn’t enough to turn your frown upside down, Mookie Betts continued his resurgence with a four-hit, five-RBI night that included an RBI double and a grand slam.
The four-game winning streak comes on the heels of a five-game losing streak, all to last-place teams (the Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles and Rockies), and allowed the Dodgers (82-64) to rebuild a three-game lead in the National League West with 16 games left in the regular season. They remain four games behind the Philadelphia Phillies (86-60) for the second seed in the NL – and the first-round bye that comes with it.
The Dodgers’ magic number to clinch their 12th division title in the past 13 seasons is 14. They also hold the tiebreaker over the second-place San Diego Padres (79-67).
The lone cloud in Wednesday’s sunny skies came just before game time when catcher Will Smith was scratched from the starting lineup with renewed discomfort in his right hand. Smith suffered a bone bruise there last Wednesday, missed five games and returned to the lineup Tuesday night.
Whatever drama Wednesday’s game might have held was mostly drained away by the end of the second inning.
Rockies third baseman whiffed on a ground ball from Tommy Edman to start the inning. Miguel Rojas followed with a single and Andy Pages with a double to drive in Edman. Kiké Hernandez collected the second RBI of the inning with a sacrifice fly.
After a ground out, Shohei Ohtani punched an RBI single through the right side and Betts hit a laser off the left field wall for an RBI double to complete the four-run burst.
The Rockies never put up a fight against Snell. They did manage to get a hit in the third inning this time after being held hitless into the ninth inning on Monday and the sixth inning on Tuesday.
Snell struck out a season-high 11 in his six innings and had 22 swings-and-misses in all (nine on his changeup, seven on his fastball and six on his curveball). Snell allowed four baserunners – singles in the third and sixth innings, walks in the first and fourth. Only one of the baserunners reached second.
Michael Kopech tried to inject some mystery into the occasion in the seventh inning, searching for the strike zone with all the accuracy of a blindfolded participant in ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey.’ Kopech got Ezequiel Tovar to ground out then walked three consecutive batters to load the bases.
Alex Vesia came in and defused the situation, striking out Mickey Moniak and Tyler Freeman. Vesia has struck out four of the five batters he has faced since being activated from the injured list earlier this week.
The Dodgers broke the game open in the eighth when Teoscar Hernandez followed Betts’ grand slam with his third home run in the past two games.
More to come on this story.
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