Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers (14-4) just wrapped up a very successful homestand that resulted in five wins out of six games, including a sweep against the New York Mets (7-13). The team now begins a seven game road trip, starting tonight against the Colorado Rockies (7-12). The Dodgers still own the best record in baseball, but the San Diego Padres (13-6) are right on their heels, in the midst of an eight-game winning streak of their own. The Rockies started their season strong with a 6-6 record through their first twelve games, but have now dropped six of their last seven games, ending a six-game losing streak last night in Houston. Tyler Glasnow will be on the mound tonight as the Dodgers begin this four game series in Denver, while Colorado counters with Tomoyuki Sugano, who will be making his fourth start as a member of the Rockies.
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| 5:40 P.M. | Denver | ||
| DH | Ohtani (L) | 2B | Julien (L) |
| RF | Tucker (L) | DH | Moniak (L) |
| C | Smith | 1B | Rumfield (L) |
| 1B | Freeman (L) | RF | Johnston (L) |
| LF | T. Hernández | SS | Tovar |
| 3B | Muncy (L) | C | Sullivan (L) |
| CF | Pages | CF | Doyle |
| SS | Kim (L) | 3B | Karros |
| 2B | Freeland (S) | LF | McCarthy (L) |
| P | Glasnow (R) | P | Sugano (R) |
Shohei Ohtani is back as the designated hitter after getting the night off (from hitting) in the series finale against the Mets. He threw six innings on Wednesday and earned his second win of the season, while Dalton Rushing got the start at DH. Rushing hit a grand slam off of Devin Williams in the bottom of the eighth inning, ensuring that Ohtani got the win on the mound, which seems to be a fair trade off. Ohtani’s season ERA now sits at 0.50 through 18 innings, while Rushing’s OPS is at 1.909 through 18 plate appearances. Kyle Tucker make loud contact his last two at-bats Wednesday night, with a 107 MPH liner into Carson Benge‘s glove in right field in the seventh inning, followed by his first homer at Dodger Stadium in the eighth. His bat seems to be coming around, which would be a welcome development for an offense that is already the best in the league.
The Rockies have been struggling to consistently put runs on the board despite playing half their games at Coors Field, with their 3.95 runs scored per game slotting them at 22nd in the sport. Their 80 wRC+ is 26th, and their strikeout rate of 27.2% is the highest in the game. That’s not to say that everyone has been bad necessarily, as Mickey Moniak (.911 OPS, 130 wRC+), Hunter Goodman (.853 OPS, 121 wRC+), and Troy Johnston (.828 OPS, 120 wRC+) have all been above-average bats. The rest of the lineup however has really struggled, and it’s resulted in a lot of low-scoring losses.
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Here’s how Glasnow and Sugano have performed thus far.
Glasnow has looked dominant nearly every time he’s taken the mound in 2026, but is yet to come away with a final line that is indicative of how he pitched. Last time out against the Rangers he was cruising, but proceeded to throw the worst pitch of his entire outing to Corey Seager with two runners on base, resulting in a three-run shot. Wyatt Langford hit a hanging curveball for a solo homer in the fifth inning, something that very rarely happens against Glasnow, as it was just the second home run he’s allowed on the curveball as a member of the Dodgers. All the underlying numbers love Glasnow’s start to the season, as he’s still generating a ton of swing-and-miss and getting strikeouts, but has also tightened up the command tremendously. He has 22 strikeouts to just four walks in 18.0 innings, with his walk rate of 5.6% more than half of his 11.7% mark last season. Coors Field is always a tough ask for pitchers, but Glasnow has been excellent thus far despite the early 4.00 ERA.
The 36 year-old Sugano signed a one-year deal with the Rockies this offseason after posting a 4.64 ERA across 157.0 innings with the Orioles last season. It was his first season in Major League Baseball after twelve seasons in the NPB. He doesn’t generate many strikeouts, with a well below-average strikeout rate, but at the same time doesn’t walk many batters, forcing the other team to put the ball in play. He’s a veteran arm that can log innings for a bad team, and that made the match between Sugano and Colorado a good one this offseason. He’s been excellent to start the year through three outings, with a 2.16 ERA after facing the Blue Jays, Phillies, and the Padres. He’s yet to allow more than two earned runs in a singular outing, and has gone six innings each of his previous two starts. He does however have a .136 batting average on balls in play against him so far, and has stranded 100% of the baserunners he’s allowed, two things that will regress eventually. He’ll look to continue his hot start to the year tonight, but the Dodgers are a tough ask at home.
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In other news,
Fun.
It looks like first pitch will take place at below 40 degrees. Yikes.
The weather has cleared up enough to get the game in, but as usual the goal in Coors Field is to get out of there without any injuries.
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First pitch is scheduled for 5:40 PT on SNLA.
