Will Smith and Freddie Freeman hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 5-3 in Denver on Thursday.
Teoscar Hernandez had three hits, Chris Taylor had two singles for his first multi-hit game of the season and Evan Phillips pitched a perfect ninth to pick up his 12th save for Los Angeles, which took three of four in the series.
Ryan McMahon homered among his two hits and Jake Cave also had a pair of singles and drove in two for Colorado. The Rockies are 2-5 on their nine-game homestand, the longest of the season, which concludes with a three-game weekend series against the Washington Nationals.
The Dodgers rebounded from Wednesday night’s 7-6 loss by jumping on Colorado starter Ty Blach. Ohtani led off the game with a home run to dead center field, his 21st of the season and second of the series.
Los Angeles expanded the lead in the third. Hernandez singled with one out and scored on Andy Pages’ double to left. After Miguel Rojas grounded out, Miguel Vargas singled to right to drive in Hernandez to make it 3-0.
The Dodgers stretched the lead in the fourth when Smith crushed his 11th homer 451 feet to center and Freeman followed with a 430-foot shot to nearly the same spot. It was also his 11th of the season.
Blach (3-5) allowed five runs on 10 hits over four innings.
Los Angeles starter Gavin Stone cruised through five shutout innings to run his scoreless streak against the Rockies to 10 innings, but Colorado got to him in the sixth, loading the bases with a single and two walks.
Blake Treinen relieved Stone and Cave greeted him with a two-run single to cut it to 5-2. Stone (8-2) allowed two runs on four hits and struck out seven in 5 1/3 innings.
McMahon got the Rockies within two when he crushed his 13th home run 462 feet into the second deck in right field in the eighth.
–Field Level Media
