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- Dalton Rushing capped a chaotic first extra-innings game of the season for the Dodgers with a walk-off single in the 11th inning of an 8-7 win over the Colorado Rockies.
- Multiple replay challenges, a pivotal plate tag and a brief benches-clearing confrontation highlighted the drama as the Dodgers became the first team to 60 wins.
- The benefit of early offense from Rushing and Shohei Ohtani was erased by Tanner Scott giving up three runs in the ninth.
Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing spun to face home plate umpire Dan Iassogna, holding up his mitt with the ball inside.
When that didn’t change the safe call, Rushing immediately pointed to the Dodgers dugout, mask in hand urging manager Dave Roberts to challenge.
Roberts’ hands flew up to his ears, asking for a replay review.
The tension in Dodger Stadium broke with the announcement: “The catcher touched the runner’s hand before he reached the plate...”
The crowd’s applause drowned out the rest.
The go-ahead run was on the line with that challenge in the Dodgers’ eventual 8-7 win over the Colorado Rockies in 11 innings. And it started a wild sequence in the Dodgers’ first extra-innings game of the season that ended with Rushing hitting a walk-off single to center to score Teoscar Hernández.
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That brawl with the Rockies — figuratively and almost literally — finished with the Dodgers becoming the first team to win 60 games this season.
“That’s a lot of wins,” Roberts said.
It looked as if the Dodgers would coast to the mark. Closer Tanner Scott took the mound in the ninth with a three-run lead. But after giving up an RBI double to Kyle Karros and a two-run double to Cole Carrigg, the score was tied. Only a strong relay throw home by second baseman Miguel Rojas and a successful challenge prevented Hunter Goodman from scoring the go-ahead run.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Dodgers got runners on first and second with two outs. That brought up Andy Pages, but a successful Rockies challenge confirmed a strikeout, sending the game to the 10th.
That ended the Dodgers’ streak of 91 games without extra innings, the second-longest in the modern era, behind only the 2005 Boston Red Sox (98).
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The drama wasn’t over. Two batters into the 10th, the benches cleared.
With one out and Carrigg on third, Jake McCarthy hit a sharp ground ball to Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who stepped on the bag and fired home.
Rushing flung his body into the tag, but Carrigg was called safe.
Carrigg said something as he began to walk away, and Rushing spun around.
As the two exchanged words, Dodgers reliever Edgardo Henriquez pulled his catcher away. Players from both dugouts and bullpens began to spill onto the field.
“I think that what happened is Carrigg said something aloud, not directed at Dalton,” Roberts said. “Dalton thought something was directed at him. We cleared the air. Basically a big misunderstanding.”
Said Rushing: “I didn’t mean any harm by the tag or the way I reacted to the ball. Made sure he knew that. Told him I was just reacting to the baseball. I don’t expect it to go any further.”
Henriquez escaped without further damage. And the Dodgers got another shot in the bottom half, with Pages on second to start the inning.
Freeman’s groundout moved him to third. Then Mookie Betts drove in Pages with a comebacker over the mound and past flailing second baseman Edouard Julien.
Kyle Tucker then looped a single into no-man’s land. But the rally ended when Hernández’s liner up the middle landed in the glove of Rockies right-hander Jimmy Herget, who just entered the game, the reliever catching Tucker off first base for a double play.
In the 11th, Henriquez got out of the inning unscathed. He got Julien to pop out on a sacrifice bunt and then started a double play himself. Henriquez punched the air as he walked off the mound.
“He’s calm in big spots; you’re starting to see it,” Roberts said. “He’s throwing strikes, throwing the breaking ball when he needs to and he’s now unfazed by certain moments and higher leverage. He’s a guy, certainly, we trust.”
In the end, Rushing — who already hit a pair of doubles and scored on Shohei Ohtani’s third-inning home run and fourth-inning, two-run single — was the hero.
After Hernández made it to third on a sacrifice bunt by Tommy Edman, Rushing got the end of his bat on a changeup and sent it up the middle, just out of reach of a diving Julien.
“Infield’s in, they’re kind of doing you a favor,” Rushing said. “So move the ball forward, good things happen. And it wasn’t pretty, but it worked.”
Rushing’s helmet twirled in the dirt behind him as he jogged from first toward the center of the field, ready for the celebration that met him there.
“He plays with a lot of moxie,” said Dodgers starting pitcher Eric Lauer, who held the Rockies to three runs in six innings. “And he definitely doesn’t back down to anybody, and we love him for that. He’s a great guy that you want on your team.”
Roster moves
Dodgers right-hander Evan Phillips is in line to make his first appearance since May 2025. Phillips made only seven appearances last season, starting on the injured list because of a strained rotator cuff before undergoing Tommy John surgery in June.
“It’s going to be a lot different tonight getting back out there in a competitive game, the full atmosphere,” Phillips said. “Really excited about that. I feel like probably the past two weeks or so I really took a good turn in my rehab, started bouncing back even better, pitching more like myself, feeling more like myself. So really just happy to carry that over to these games and see how the second half treats us.”
In a pair of corresponding moves, the Dodgers optioned right-handed reliever Paul Gervase to triple-A Oklahoma City and released left-hander Jake Elder.
The Dodgers also designated catcher Chuckie Robinson for assignment and added right-hander Carlos Duran to the 40-man roster. Both players are set to stay in Oklahoma City, with Robinson accepting his outright assignment.
