Rox back Anderson's gem with three homers to defeat Dodgers

One day after DJ LeMahieu seemingly willed his Colorado Rockies to victory with a tremendous individual performance, Tyler Anderson paid homage to his teammate with his club’s most sparkling pitching performance of the season.

In the longest outing of his career and the longest by any Rockies pitcher so far this season, Anderson was spectacular in his eight innings of work, allowing just four singles and striking out eight in shutting down the Dodgers lineup in dominant fashion.

In a game where the offense was in rare supply—in fact, all three runs in the game coming on solo homers—Anderson even threw out a couple of base hits to put the cherry on top of his performance.

The Rockies backed up Anderson by hitting three solo home runs, edging out a well-pitched game by the Los Angeles Dodgers as well, earning their second straight road victory inside the NL West.

The scoreless tie was finally broken up in the fifth on a play very few would have guessed. Pat Valaika, who struggled so much in the early going that he needed to be sent back to Triple-A after being the Rockies best bench player a season ago. Getting the start in this one thanks to the lefty on the hill, Valaika did what we saw him do so many times last year, leaning on a high fastball and smashing it over the wall in left for his first home run of the season.

The Dodgers got their first hit against Anderson in the bottom of the fifth when Matt Kemp (who else?) opened the inning up with a single on a line drive to left. But he was immediately erased from the basepaths when Logan Forsythe hit into a tailor-made 6-4-3 double play.

Yasiel Puig followed that with a single of his own, a fortunate sequence on a swinging bunt, but Austin Barnes wasn’t so lucky when his soft roller found itself in Nolan Arenado territory.

The best defensive third baseman in the game did what he arguably does best and came in on the ball, picking it up and throwing with the barehand in one motion to gun the runner out and end the inning.

The Rockies got an insurance run in the eighth on Arenado’s 20th home run of the year, a laser-line-drive deep over the wall in left, showcasing just how many ways he can help his club win a baseball game.

Colorado’s final run came in the ninth on their third solo home run of the game, this one off the bat of Chris Iannetta, his sixth of the year.

With Anderson’s pitch count still only at 96, but with his spot up in the order, manager Bud Black went with Carlos Gonzalez to pinch-hit. He struck out.

That meant it was Wade Davis time. The Rockies closer struck out Chris Taylor and got a weak pop-out from Enrique Hernandez before Justin Turner got ahold of a mislocated fastball, ripping it over the wall in left for his fifth home run of the season, breaking up the shutout. It was the 54th home run of the month for the Dodgers, a new franchise record.

Final Stats:

Tyler Anderson: 8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 8 K

Wade Davis: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Nolan Arenado: 2-for-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, HR (20)

Pat Valaika: 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, HR (1)

Chris Iannetta: 1-for-3, 1 R, 1 RBI HR (6)

Trevor Story: 2-for-4

Tyler Anderson: 2-for-3

What’s Next:

The second game of the series sees German Marquez take on Kenta Maeda. First pitch at 5:15 Mountain Time.