Dodgers hold off Rockies, 5-2
The Dodgers traded their feast-or-famine offense for a Happy Medium Meal on Tuesday night, combining a solid-but-not-spectacular offense with some stout pitching from Julio Urías for a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies before a sellout crowd of 52,290 in Chavez Ravine.
A lineup that produced 31 runs on 33 hits in their three wins and scored two runs on nine hits and went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position in two losses managed just seven hits on Tuesday night, though three were home runs by Will Smith, Jason Heyward and Max Muncy.
But the Dodgers didn’t need to pummel the Rockies to make a winner out of Urias, who gave up five hits, struck out six and walked none in six shutout innings and escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the third.
Dodgers lead 5-0 heading to ninth inning
Mookie Betts led off the bottom of the eighth with a double. Freddie Freeman walked and Will Smith doubled to right-center, scoring Betts, Freeman to third. Max Muncy struck out looking. Martinez and Thompson also struck out.
Score after eight: Dodgers 5, Rockies 0
Julio Urías with six strong innings so far
Julio Urías has pitched six strong innings at Dodger Stadium, holding the Rockies scoreless while giving up five hits, walking none and striking out six. He has made 87 pitches, 60 for strikes. Will the Dodgers try to get one more inning out of him?
The Dodgers got two walks in the bottom of the sixth (Freeman and Martinez), but did not score.
Score after six: Dodgers 4, Rockies 0
Dodgers use more power to take 4-0 lead
Max Muncy came into the game with one hit in 16 at-bats, but has two hits tonight, including a leadoff homer here in the bottom of the fourth. J.D. Martinez grounded to second. David Peralta grounded to second. James Outman struck out swinging.
Score after four: Dodgers 4, Rockies 0
Dodgers take 3-0 lead on Jason Heyward’s homer
Ezequiel Tovar led off the top of the third with a single for the Rockies. Jurickson Profar singled to right, Tovar to second. Yonathan Daza laid down a bunt, and Max Muncy at third was a spectator, charging too late, with everyone safe. Bases loaded, no one out. Kris Bryant struck out looking. C.J. Cron grounded into a 5-4-3 double play. Excellent way to escape the jam, and Muncy redeemed himself by starting the double play. It’s still 2-0 Dodgers.
In the bottom of the third, Jason Heyward led off with his second homer in two nights. Mookie Betts struck out swinging. Freddie Freeman grounded to second. Will Smith flied to right.
Score after three: Dodgers 3, Rockies 0
Dodgers take 2-0 lead on Will Smith’s homer
The Dodgers get on board first. Mookie Betts singled up the middle. Freddie Freeman flied to left. Will Smith homered, his third homer in three games. Orel Hershiser said “He must have gotten stronger this offseason. The ball sounds different off his bat.” Max Muncy singled to left. J.D. Martinez grounded into a double play.
Score after one: Dodgers 2, Rockies 0
Reliever Daniel Hudson hits a plateau in recovery from knee surgery
Daniel Hudson continues to throw bullpen sessions and live batting practice at the team’s Arizona spring-training complex, but the right-hander appears to have hit a plateau in his recovery from last summer’s surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee.
“He’s been throwing, so the arm is in shape, but the knee just hasn’t responded well,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday. “I just don’t know a timetable for Huddy. He’s obviously disappointed. We want him back. I expect him back. I just don’t know when that will be.”
The Dodgers hoped Hudson, who closed games for the 2019 World Series-champion Washington Nationals, would seize a ninth-inning role this season–he went 2-3 with a 2.22 ERA and five saves in 25 games for the Dodgers before tearing his knee ligament last June.
But since Hudson resumed throwing in March, he has felt some discomfort while throwing off the mound, and his knee has required several days to bounce back between bullpen and batting-practice sessions.
“He couldn’t get to a point where we felt he was going to be able to get over the hump and recover,” Roberts said. “So it’s not a setback, it’s more of the same [issues that slowed him in March]. When we activate him, we don’t want to have to look back.”
Dodgers to take on Rockies without starting middle-infield tandem
The middle-infield combination of shortstop Miguel Rojas and second baseman Miguel Vargas are not in the Dodgers lineup for Tuesday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies, Rojas because of a minor left-groin injury and Vargas because of a sore right thumb.
Rojas tweaked his groin while trying to turn an unassisted double play on speedy Arizona left fielder Corbin Carroll in the ninth inning Sunday. He did not play Monday night against the Rockies, and with an off-day Wednesday, the Dodgers want to give him three days to recover.
“It’s nothing to really worry about,” said Rojas, who felt good enough to take live batting practice Tuesday afternoon. “I’m available off the bench today if they need me, but we’re thinking of the big picture, the long run. There’s no need to play through it now.”
Vargas, who suffered a hairline fracture of the pinkie finger on his right hand in February, was hit on the inside of his right thumb by a 92-mph Connor Seabold fastball in the seventh inning of Monday night’s 13-4 Dodgers win.
He had some soreness, tenderness and inflammation in the thumb Tuesday, but the Dodgers did not deem the injury serious enough to order an MRI test for Vargas.
“It’s pretty benign,” manager Dave Roberts said. “He can hit, he can take an at-bat, but right now throwing affects him. So given tomorrow is an off day, hopefully with two days of rest we can get back in there on Thursday.”
Michael Grove overcomes illness as Dodgers’ young pitching experiment begins
Dave Roberts doesn’t like using the term “audition.”
But every time the Dodgers call up one of their young starting pitchers to the major leagues this season, giving the manager and the rest of the organization a chance to see one of their homegrown talents up close, Roberts acknowledged it’s an important opportunity.
To build a “track record of dependency,” as Roberts described it.
To prove their readiness at the big league level, where opportunities should abound this year with the Dodgers’ pitching staff.
Max Muncy returns with key piece of protective equipment
Max Muncy returned to the lineup for Monday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies wearing a somewhat new piece of protective equipment after taking a bad-hop grounder to the groin on Saturday and missing Sunday’s game against Arizona.
“We’re not gonna let that happen again,” the third baseman said. “It’s like when you see guys wearing elbow guards who have never worn them before. All it takes is one time, and then you start wearing [a protective cup].”
Muncy wore a cup in his first two big league seasons with the Oakland Athletics, when he played some first base, second base and third base in 2015-2016, but he stopped wearing one in late 2018 or 2019, after he started playing mostly first base for the Dodgers.
Tony Gonsolin’s ankle sprain gave him time to correct flaw in delivery
When Tony Gonsolin twisted his left ankle during spring-training fielding drills in Arizona on March 6, the right-hander figured he would return to action “in a week, a week-and-a-half.”
Nearly a month later, Gonsolin is still in the early stages of a throwing program that has put the 2022 All-Star on course to return to the rotation by late-April at the earliest.
“The first day it was pretty swollen, tender to touch, I couldn’t really move it very well, and the second day, I couldn’t put any pressure on it at all,” Gonsolin said before Monday night’s game against the Colorado Rockies. “After a week, I couldn’t put ample pressure on it to even throw. So I was definitely surprised by the severity of the injury.”
Dodgers heat up the bats in the cold and use big inning to defeat Rockies
Dodger Stadium felt more like early season Chicago on Monday night, with a wind-chill factor of about 50 degrees and gusts of 25-28 mph whipping the flags behind center field into a frenzy and turning a few fly balls and infield popups into adventures.
So it was no surprise that the game — especially for one crazy inning — resembled one of those wild Wrigley Field affairs, with the Dodgers and Colorado Rockies combining for 11 runs, eight hits and four walks in the fifth inning.
When the haymakers stopped flying, it was the Dodgers who were standing, riding their seven-run, five-hit outburst in the fifth to a 13-4 victory before a Julio Urías bobblehead night crowd of 49,792 at Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers TV schedule for the 2023 regular season
Here’s a look at the Dodgers TV schedule for the 2023 regular season. All times and broadcast/streaming options are subject to change.
