DENVER — Ominous storm clouds hung over Denver on Thursday afternoon and into the evening, threatening to drop rain on Coors Field.
But they never did – and the Colorado Rockies were doomed.
The Dodgers scored six times in the first two innings by a variety pack assortment of methods and kept it up from there, handing the Rockies an uninterrupted-by-rain 13-0 beating.
The rout continued a change in altitude for the Dodgers. They lost four of their first five games at Coors Field this season, averaging just three runs per game. In their last two games here, they have outscored the Rockies 21-4 in a pair of wins.
“I’d like to think it was an adjustment to the mean, I guess,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “They got the best of us early. But over the last three, four, five years we’ve played well here. It’s nice to get back to scoring runs. Tonight was just an all-around good day to be a Dodger.”
The Dodgers MacGyver-ed up their first two runs in the first inning using a single by Trea Turner, a walk of Freddie Freeman, a double steal with a wild throw to score one run and a wild pitch to bring the second home.
A four-run second inning was enabled by Rockies first baseman Connor Joe, whose throw hit Cody Bellinger in the back on a potential double play. That loaded the bases for Turner who bounced a double down the third-base line to drive in all three. Will Smith drove in Turner with a double.
After a brief pause with a scoreless third, the Dodgers went back to torturing Rockies starter José Ureña.
He gave up back-to-back singles to start the fourth then fielded a Freeman ground ball back to the mound, thought about throwing to second, changed his mind and threw to first instead – but only in the vicinity.
His error again loaded the bases. Smith drove in two with a single, Gavin Lux one with a single (the first of his three hits in the game) and Bellinger two more with a double.
Ureña was gone by then, charged with the Dodgers’ first 10 runs. The last two starting pitchers against the Dodgers (Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin on Wednesday and Ureña on Thursday) gave up 16 runs on 15 hits while recording a total of 11 outs.
“Kind of rolling in from what happened against the Nationals, kind of just putting it on early and play downhill from there,” Lux said.
Freeman (who walked twice) and Zach McKinstry were the only Dodger starters without a hit in the first four innings. Freeman got his with a two-out, two-run double in the seventh inning.
The Dodgers’ 13 runs came on 14 hits, three Rockies errors — but no home runs.
“I just think we’re taking better at-bats and not just waiting for a three-run homer,” Roberts said of an offense that has scored a National League-high 132 runs in 23 games this month. “I think that gives us a better chance to stay away from those dry spells in the middle innings.”
Meanwhile, Tyler Anderson kept the Dodgers on the offensive, retiring his former team quickly through seven scoreless innings. He allowed just four hits and only one baserunner past first base while throwing 13 pitches or fewer in five of his seven innings.
“Tonight for me, it was just about throw strikes, stay in the zone and not walk anybody — especially after we scored a bunch of runs early,” Anderson said. “You want to go out there and force them to put the ball in play.”
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