Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Predicted to lose 100 games this season, the Colorado Rockies may end up being 10% of the way there by the time they leave Los Angeles this week. With the Dodgers handing them a 7-0 loss, the Rockies are now 3-8 and have lost four straight.
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Back in 2020, Antonio Senzatela allowed five homers in 10 2/3 innings at Dodger Stadium. Four of those homers came on Aug. 23, with Corey Seager getting him in the 1st, Mookie Betts in the 3rd, Enrique Hernandez in the 4th and finally Cody Bellinger in the 6th. A few weeks later on Sept. 4, Max Muncy got Senzatela again in the first inning.
All of this is to say that this outcome wasn’t too surprising.
After Seager sent that ball 380 feet (and 107.5 mph off the bat), Chris Taylor followed with one of his own.
The lead remained 2-0 after the 2nd, though AJ Pollock did put a ball about 390 feet to deep center field before Betts sent one 104.7 mph off the bat into the left field stands to make it 3-0 in the 3rd.
Seager followed Betts’ homer with a double to right center, with the ball 105.0 off the bat for yet another hard hit. Senzatela retired Taylor and Muncy and looked like he might be able to escape the inning without any more damage. However, that would not be the case as Will Smith worked an 8-pitch walk to really drive up Senzatela’s pitch count, and Gavin Lux drove home Seager with a weak single to center.
Already at 69 pitches, Colorado’s starter faced Pollock and induced a ground ball to short. Somehow, Trevor Story threw the ball in the dirt with Smith scoring to end Senzatela’s day. A line of 2 2/3 innings, 5 runs allowed (4 earned), two walks and four strikeouts could have been worse, but after Jhoulys Chacin walked Edwin Rios, the inning finally came to an end.
Chacin continued Colorado’s struggles early on in his outing, walking Seager with one away in the 4th before Taylor turned an 8-pitch at-bat into a single. Already at 30 pitches himself, Chacin watched Muncy bring in the Dodgers’ sixth run of the day with a double to left-center field. Finishing the 5th without any more damage, Chacin wrapped up his day with 62 pitches across 2 1/3 innings. Allowing four hits and two walks, Chacin did give up just the one run after Senzatela’s struggles.
Robert Stephenson entered in the 6th and observed his sixth pitch sail 419 feet to center for a 7-0 lead.
On the other side, the Rockies didn’t put up much of a fight at the plate.
An infield single by Garrett Hampson in the 3rd stood as the only hit until the 9th inning. Just two other batters reached base against Trevor Bauer, with Charlie Blackmon and C.J. Cron walking in the 2nd.
Bauer struck out 9, needing just 99 pitches to get through 7 shutout innings.
David Price entered in the 8th with a 7-0 lead, looking to get right after a pair of tough appearances this season. Opening with a five-pitch strikeout to Josh Fuentes, Price finished off the at-bat with a swinging strike on a change-up off the plate. Following a fly out by Elias Diaz, Price got Yonathan Daza looking with a 1-2 cutter to finish the inning on 11 pitches (9 strikes).
It was just one inning, but the five sinkers (top), four changes (middle) and two cutters (bottom) all took a jump in velocity compared to the first two outings this season.
Scott Alexander closed out the victory, allowing a hit before finishing his inning of work with a game-ending double play.
Coupled with the finale in Coors Field on April 4, the Rockies have just 6 hits and 2 runs against the Dodgers in the past 18 innings.
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Now 9-2 this season, the Dodgers face the Rockies for the second game of the series on Wednesday at 7:10 p.m. PST. It’ll be Dustin May in his second start of the season on extended rest against Jon Gray, who holds a 1.54 ERA/2.38 FIP/4.13 SIERA in his 11 2/3 innings this season. Gray held the Dodgers to just one run scored across 5 innings back on April 3, striking out seven to just one walk.
