Dodgers @ Rockies June 24, 2025: Dreyer starts a bullpen game in Colorado

The Dodgers got a glimpse of the Shohei Ohtani experience on Sunday, as he opened the game with a scoreless frame on the mound and hit a homer and a triple. The offense exploded off the Nationals’ bullpen after being shut down for five innings by Mike Soroka. The 13-7 win game the Dodgers a series win and a 7-3 homestand, pushing them 3.5 games ahead of the Giants and 5.5 ahead of the Padres (thanks to a Nats win yesterday) in the West.

Today they open a six-game road trip in Colorado to face the Rockies for the second time this season. The Dodgers swept Colorado at home back in April, and things have not gotten much better for the Rockies. They’re 18-60, 29.5 games back of the Dodgers in the West and 5.5 games worse than the White Sox, who have the second-worst record in baseball. The Rockies did win their second series of the season last week, taking three of four against the Nationals (with their lone loss coming in extras on a James Wood walk-off). The Rockies arguably have both the worst offense (highest strikeout rate, third lowest walk rate, lowest wRC+) and worst pitching staff (highest ERA, lowest strikeout rate, highest hard-hit rate allowed) in baseball, but the offense has been quite good in June. Their June OPS is .785, the fourth-highest in baseball and higher than the Dodgers’ .754 OPS. despite only playing nine of their games at Coors.

	5:40 PM		Denver
DH	Ohtani (L)	RF	T. Freeman
SS	Betts	C	Goodman
1B	Freeman (L)	LF	Beck
C	Smith	1B	Toglia (S)
3B	Muncy (L)	2B	Estrada
RF	T. Hernández	3B	McMahon (L)
CF	Pages	CF	Doyle
LF	Conforto (L)	DH	Farmer
2B	Edman (S)	SS	Ritter
P	Dreyer (L)	P	Márquez (R)

Jack Dreyer gets the start in essentially the second consecutive bullpen game. Ohtani threw his inning on Sunday and gave way to Ben Casparius, who gave the Dodgers five innings. They also used Anthony Banda (13 pitches), Lou Trevino (18 pitches) and needed Alex Vesia (nine pitches) to clean up Enrique Hernandez’ rough outing. Casparius obviously won’t be available, but everyone else should be. Justin Wrobleski figures to be the length guy today, having last pitched Wednesday against the Padres. His last two outings have been in bulk roles, entering the games in the fifth inning and finishing off both games. He only allowed two earned (and one unearned) over those 9 1/3 innings and struck out eight without walking a batter. Wrobleski’s final regular season outing game in Colorado last September, and he allowed two hits over four scoreless innings for a four-inning save.

Germán Márquez makes his 16th start of the season and looks to avenge himself after the Dodgers lit him up in April. Márquez faced 10 batters and recorded two outs before being pulled, allowing seven runs (five of which came after having two outs and the bases empty). Ohtani and Freddie Freeman took Márquez deep, but he went single-HBP-walk-single-double-single before being yanked. The Rockies nearly came back (Bobby Miller allowed six runs over three innings), but the Dodgers held on for an 8-7 win. Márquez’s ERA hasn’t really recovered from that start and currently sits at 6.11, the lowest it’s been since that start. He’s been very good his last two times out, allowing one run in 10 2/3 combined innings in Atlanta and Washington.

Márquez has thrown his knuckle-curve 29.6 percent of the time, his most-used pitch this season and the highest he’s ever thrown it. He’s thrown his four-seamer only 28.6 percent, the lowest percent he’s ever thrown it. He’s only allowed a .194 average and .327 slugging on his curve, but a .351 average and .574 slugging on the fastball. He’s also thrown a sinker (26.5 percent), slider (12.6 percent) and change (2.7 percent). His knuckle curve usage has been up over the last month, throwing it at least 32.9 percent of the time in each of his last seven starts.

Teoscar Hernandez drops down to sixth in the Dodger lineup, the lowest he’s hit in the starting lineup this season.

——

A couple minor Ohtani-related updates today.

The Dodgers rotation schedule this week would seemingly mean Shohei Ohtani is lined up to pitch next on Saturday

But Dave Roberts said the team is leaving it “open-ended” for now

— Jack Harris (@ByJackHarris) June 24, 2025

Dustin May is lined up to start the opener in Kansas City on Friday, but the starters for Saturday and Sunday are still unknown. It could be a pair of bullpen games with Ohtani being lined up to throw Saturday.

#Dodgers Shohei Ohtani leads NL vote-getters for the All-Star Game.
Will the NL manager use him as a pitcher in ASG? “No,” the NL mgr said
Will the NL manager bat him leadoff? “Yes,” the NL mgr said.
(Dave Roberts is NL mgr this year)

— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) June 24, 2025

Ohtani will not be used as a pitcher in the All Star Game, but should he be voted in he will hit leadoff. Neither of these things are a surprise at all.
——

First pitch is scheduled for 5:40 PM PT and will be shown on SportsNet LA.