Editor’s Note: This is an audio story, meaning that BSN Denver subscribers can listen to it if they don’t have time to stop and read it in its entirety. We would love to know what you think about it in the comments. Enjoy!
The Los Angeles Dodgers, for the fourth game in a row, beat the Colorado Rockies by taking a tie game in the ninth and swinging it dramatically in their favor.
It was Colorado’s 12th straight loss to the Dodgers.
Starters Peter Lambert and Walker Buehler ended up as afterthoughts as the game spun wildly out of control.
It was another brutal loss for closer Wade Davis who now has three losses in the last week.
The Dodgers jumped out to a two-run lead in the second on back-to-back home runs from Cody Bellinger and Max Muncy who blasted balls to center and right field respectively.
The Rockies came right back to tie it in the bottom half and maybe could have gotten more. Raimel Tapia and Ryan McMahon opened the frame with a couple of singles but Tapia was thrown out trying for third on a bobble in left field.
After Tony Wolters struck out, Lambert kept the inning alive with a single to right which came up huge when Garrett Hampson lined one to center away from the shift for a two-run triple.
They took the lead and added a pair of runs in the third on doubles from David Dahl, Tapia, and Daniel Murphy.
But the Dodgers turned the tables with a big three-run fifth, getting two homers that just barely left the park.
Alex Verdugo followed up a single from Joc Pederson for a two-run shot that tied the game and Justin Turner produced an oppo taco on a ball out of the zone, hitting it just over the high wall in right to give LA a 5-4 lead.
They got another one against Chad Bettis in the fifth on a double from Chris Taylor and a two-out single by Joc Pederson. Tapia misplayed a ball in left that led directly to the run, allowing Taylor to reach third.
But the Rockies struck back big in the sixth, beginning with a leadoff walk from pinch-hitter Pat Valaika.
Hampson backed that up with a soft single to left and both runners came all the way around when Charlie Blackmon stayed back on a breaking ball and pulled it just inside the line for a triple.
He trotted home with ease to score the go-ahead run on a deep flyball to left from Dahl.
The Dodgers answered that, though, coming back to take the lead in the seventh on a single from Pederson and Muncy’s second wall-scraper opposite-field home run of the game.
And the Rockies tied it right back up on Ryan McMahon’s seventh home run of the season. The lefty, who at one point struck out in six consectuive at-bats on the road trip, went down and got underneath a slider from Yimi Garcia and launched it over the wall in center to make it an 8-8 game.
Scott Oberg struck out the side in the eighth for one of the few dominant displays of pitching in the game but Bud Black turned to Wade Davis in the ninth who did just the opposite.
After getting a quick out, he walked Muncy on four pitches then gave up a pair of weak singles. Matt Beaty swung late on a pitch away from him but managed to ground it through the left side and Taylor was jammed but his pop-up made it just over the infield, allowing Muncy to score the go-ahead run.
Davis got Austin Barnes to fly out to center for the second out but served up a tater for pinch-hitter Enrique Hernandez who crushed it to center for a home run to give the Dodgers a sudden 12-8 lead.
And that was the final score in another heartbreaker for the boys in purple.
