Home Opener disappoints as Dodgers damage Anderson

DENVER – A sold-out crowd of 48,404 welcomed their heroes back to Colorado for the home opener Friday afternoon at Coors Field.

Unfortunately, Rockies fanatics left disappointed due in large part to starting pitcher Tyler Anderson surrendering six earned runs in his four-plus innings of work and the offense going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.

Electric from the start, the Coors Field faithful got even louder at the defensive wizardry of Nolan Arenado in the first.

Anderson walked Corey Seager with one out and Arenado, fresh off his $260MM extension, ended the Dodgers threat with a five-star, full-extension grab of a Justin Turner grounder that started an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.

In the bottom of the first, Charlie Blackmon dribbled one to second base for an infield single to start Colorado’s first attempt at runs, but Arenado – ironically – hit into an inning-ending double play himself.

Los Angeles got on the board first when Russell Martin lined one just off the glove of a leaping Arenado. He moved to second on the sac bunt by opposing pitcher Kenta Maeda, and a Seager single easily scored the Canadian backstop.

In the third, Anderson helped out himself with a leadoff single and Blackmon followed with a single of his own. Maeda walked David Dahl to load the bases for Arenado.

Arenado sent a long drive to left field and Anderson tagged up on the sacrifice fly to tie the game at one.

Not be outdone, Max Muncy quickly put the Dodgers back up with his 417-ft homer to center field in the next half inning.

Soon after in the fifth, four straight hits for Los Angeles put the game out of reach.

Anderson walked Kiké Hernández, Seager singled and Turner doubled.

With runners on second and third, Cody Bellinger lifted a 90mph fastball to right 413-ft for a three-run homer that all but ended Anderson’s 2019 debut at Coors.

Rockies came back in the bottom of the fifth to put runners on the corner with a Wolters’ single and a Valaika fielder’s choice (Wolters moved up to third base on the Turner throwing error).

Even when Arenado walked to load the bases with two outs, the Rockies could not capitalize; Story struck out looking on Maeda’s 91st pitch.

In the sixth, Russell Martin tagged a Carlos Estévez offering 445 feet into left field to extend the Dodgers lead to six.

Mike Dunn entered the game in the seventh and quickly allowed two more runs to plate: Bellinger walked on four pitches, A.J. Pollock singled and Muncy tripled.

But in the bottom of the frame, the Rockies bats came to life when Brock Stewart entered the game.

Pat Valaika drew a walk, Blackmon singled against the shift, and Arenado added an RBI single before Blackmon was thrown out at home trying to score.

Story mashed one to straightaway center 430-ft for a two-run home run that brought the score to 9-4 in favor of the Blues.

Dodgers would add one more run in the ninth while the Dahl and Story would add a solo homer each in the bottom of the inning.

Story’s two home runs today is his eleventh multi-homer game of his very young career.

All total, the Dodgers would use seven pitchers to keep the Rockies to just eight hits and shut down the offense each time they seemed to threaten.

STATS

Anderson: 4 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 2 K, 2 HR

Estévez: 2 IP, 2 H, 1R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 HR

Dunn: 0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 K

Johnson: 1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K

Shaw: 1 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 K

Blackmon: 3-for-5

Dahl: 1-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 HR

Arenado: 1-for-3, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 E

Story: 2-for-5, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2 HR