Dodgers 11, Rockies 5: Muncy & Ohtani lead an offensive breakout, Tucker & Diaz unfortunately reach new lows

Chad Moriyama 08/17/2026 Game Recaps Leave A Comment

Another series, another chance for the Dodgers to reset and begin playing better baseball, wins and losses aside. Things got off to an ideal start against the Rockies, as the offense staked Blake Snell to an early lead behind Max Muncy‘s no-doubt dong, and Snell only had one hiccup of an inning. Shohei Ohtani helped to pile on and extend the lead, and the bullpen managed to not meltdown to give the Dodgers an 11-5 win.

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On paper, Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano seemed like an ideal guy to help get the Dodgers back on track, and thankfully that’s mostly what happened.

Things didn’t start well in the 1st, as the top of the order went down in order on just nine pitches, but that thankfully changed in the 2nd. Max Muncy started with a walk and scored on a Mookie Betts double for their first run, though he was left standing on second.

In the 3rd, a one-out single from Shohei Ohtani was followed by a Freddie Freeman single and an Andy Pages single to score Shohei. Max then stepped up again and worked an eight-pitch at-bat before launching an absolute no-doubter for his 25th of the year.

The four-spot in the 3rd gave them five, and that alone felt like a win already.

After Sugano rebounded with a clean 4th, Shohei led off the 5th with his 28th homer.

Later in the inning, a one-out double from Pages was followed by Muncy reaching on an error to corner things, and Mookie then got lucky to avoid a double play to plate Pages for their seventh run of the night at the end of their 5th.

Juan Mejia took over for Sugano in the 6th, giving up an Edman lead-off infield single but rebounding with a pair of outs. Unfortunately for him, Shohei absolutely annihilated a ball to center for his 29th for a two-run shot to make it nine.

After Freddie Freeman broke his extra-base hit drought with a double, Pages singled for his third hit of the game to give the Dodgers double digits.

Mejia gave up another single after, but got the final out to end the 6th.

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The Dodgers thankfully had a comfortable lead at that point thanks to Blake Snell mostly shutting the Rockies down except for one adventure of an inning.

Snell started with clean frames in the 1st and 2nd innings, then he walked the bases loaded to start the 3rd. Incredible. A run later scored on a groundout, but that was the first of three outs in a row that meant Snell only gave up that run.

With one-out in the 4th, Snell ran into a bit more trouble with an infield single that was followed by a clean single, but he got the next two to strand the pair of runners as a part of eight in a row that got him through the 6th.

That included gems from both Tommy Edman and Mookie Betts.

Due to the 10-1 lead, he was removed at that point even though he was mostly cruising: 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 5 K, 90 Pitches.

For the 7th, Alex Vesia looked to get things back on track, though that quest started roughly when Kyle Tucker dropped a routine flyball in right for a two-base error.

I dunno. Clearly in his head. Brutal.

Vesia got the next three batters but did give up a sac fly to make it 10-2.

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Meanwhile, TJ Shook was in for the Rockies and got a clean 7th, but with one-out in the 8th he gave up a one-out single (and error) to Ohtani. That was followed by another Freddie double to make it 11-2, and after a walk followed that, Shook got out of the frame.

Position player Troy Johnston was given the 9th, hitting a batter and issuing a walk, but being the only Rockies pitcher to give up zero runs.

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Closing things out for the Dodgers was Evan Phillips to start the 8th, and he cruised through a clean frame.

The 9th? Edwin Diaz looking to get in some work and also work things out, and he certainly didn’t look good. A single and hit batter started the inning, then a hard lineout to center was followed by another single to make it 11-3.

Another single followed to load the bases, and a sac fly made it 11-4, but a double followed to score another and it was 11-5.

He did get the final out, but not before Tanner Scott had to warm.

I don’t care, man. He cannot be closing right now.

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Pre-game is time for Eric Karros to say whatever, like being horny for Shohei Ohtani and Stephen Nelson barely keeping it together.

Kyle went 0-for-5, including the dropped flyball and this:

If Dustin didn’t already believe this, he does now.

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NL SeedingRecordGB
Brewers77-48–
Dodgers75-512.5
Braves74-513.0

The series continues tomorrow at the same time of 2:40 PM HT/5:40 PM PT/8:40 PM ET with Eric Lauer on the bump against Ryan Feltner. No offense to Lauer, but it’s not the best of circumstances for a pitch-to-contact guy like him, so it looks like a good test to see if the bats can keep it rolling.

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