Roger Arrieta
COLORADO—A pair of youngsters provided the lone highlights in the Dodgers’ series finale at Colorado. Tony Gonsolin struck out a career-high 10 hitters in 5.0 innings pitched and Zach McKinstry recorded his first major-league hit in Los Angeles’ 6-3 loss to the Rockies.
Gonsolin struck out the first six batters he faced and allowed two runs in his seventh start of the year while McKinstry, who started for the first time since being called up from the alternate training site on Sept. 16, doubled in the third inning to collect the first base knock of his MLB career.
The Rockies scored the first five runs in the game which proved to be too large of a deficit to overcome for the Dodgers who were using their 51st different lineup of the season. The loss ended a 5-game win streak for LA and dropped their season record to 38-16. Colorado wins for only the third time in the last 12 games and ups its record to 23-29.
GAME RECAP: The game started with Gonsolin pouncing all over the Rockies’ hitters and striking out the side in each of the first two innings. He gave up a couple of line outs to start the third and then fanned Garrett Sampson to push his K total to seven. The Rox would get to The Catman in the fourth when Raimel Rapia and Kevin Pillar led off with singles and Trevor Story earned a 1-out walk to load the bases. Josh Fuentes gave the Rox a 2-0 lead when he singled to center. Gonsolin struck out the next two hitters to run his strikeout total to nine through four innings of play. Gonsolin finished his outing with a 1-2-3 fifth and got Hampson to K for the second time on the day to bring his final K mark to 10.
Colorado broke open the game with three runs in the sixth. Blake Treinen lasted only four batters, retired one and gave up three consecutive singles before Victor González got the final two outs but not before giving up run scoring singles to Elias Díaz and Ryan McMahon.
Los Angeles finally got on the board in the seventh when Edwin Ríos came through with a 2-out single that scored Max Muncy after Muncy walked and went to second on another walk to Cody Bellinger.
The Dodgers put the tying run at the plate in both the eighth and ninth innings but couldn’t come up with the clutch 2-out hit. LA staged a 2-out rally in the eighth and loaded the bases but Bellinger struck out to end the threat. After Colorado regained a 5-run lead in the bottom of the eighth, the Dodgers scored a pair of runs on an A.J. Pollock single and had runners on first and second before Chris Taylor grounded out to second to end the game.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
MAGIC NUMBER: The Dodger’s “magic number” stays at 2. The loss in the series finale and a win by the Padres over Seattle means that LA will have to wait until they get back home to try and clinch its eighth straight NL West crown. If the Dodgers can win two of their final six games or win one and have San Diego lose one or have the Padres lose twice, LA can celebrate their division title Covid style.
IF THE PLAYOFFS STARTED TODAY: If the playoffs started on Monday, the Dodgers would face Cincinnati in the best-of-three, opening round of the playoffs. The Reds beat the White Sox 7-3 on Sunday and are 27-27 on the year. They are tied with Milwaukee and the Giants who also won on Sunday and are also at the .500 mark.
AWAY AWESOMENESS: The Dodgers finish the 2020 regular season with a 22-8 mark on the road. That is the best record in MLB and their winning percentage of .733 is the best in MLB history since the league expanded in 1962. The previous best belonged to the 2001 Seattle Mariners who had a road winning percentage of .728. That is especially good news for Los Angeles since, after the first round, the 2020 playoffs will all be road games.
OBSCURE STAT OF THE DAY: Sunday’s game marked the 17th time this season that Mookie Betts wasn’t in the No.1 spot in the batting order. The Dodgers are now 9-8 when Betts doesn’t hit in the leadoff spot.
DOUBLE-DIGIT K CLUB: Gonsolin became only the third Dodgers’ pitcher this season to record a double-digit strikeout total in a game. Clayton Kershaw fanned 11 Mariners on Aug. 20 and Walker Buehler accomplished the feat the very next day when he struck out 11 against Colorado. Gonsolin gave up two runs in 5.0 innings in the finale which upped his season ERA to 1.77. He only allowed three hits and a single walk which lowered his season WHIP to 0.792.
BIG ZACH ATTACK: McKinstry added a single over the head of Story at shortstop in the ninth inning and finished off his first-ever start in the bigs by going 2-for-4 and scoring a run. McKinstry, who will likely get sent back to the alternate site on Tuesday once Joc Pederson is reactivated, finished his first stint with the Dodgers by going 2-for-7 (.286).
STREAK STUFF: A pair of Dodgers’ hitters extended their on-base streaks on Sunday. Justin Turner went 0-for-3 by came through with a walk in the eighth to up his streak to an MLB-best 26 games. Like Turner, Will Smith didn’t get a hit in the game but added to his streak. Smith earned his the hard way by getting beaned in the fifth and ninth frames and has now reached safely in 17 games. Betts gives LA three players with on-base streaks over 15 games. He has a string of 19 games.
BUEHLER BETTER: Buehler threw 90 pitches in a simulation game on Saturday – 75 of which were without a covering over the blister on his throwing hand. His finger showed no signs of where and Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts said he will likely start on Thursday.
ON DECK: The Dodgers will have their final off day of the regular season on Monday and then start a 3-game series at home against the Oakland A’s on Tuesday which will be followed by another 3-game series at home against the Halos. The playoffs are scheduled to begin a week from Wednesday on Sept. 30.
