DENVER — Yuck. That about sums up Wednesday in Denver. After thumping Colorado on Tuesday, the Dodgers turned around and laid an egg against the worst team in baseball, losing a lopsided 8-3 contest. The Rockies punched first, kept punching, and won comfortably in a game that never felt close.
Ohtani’s Roughest Night on the Mound
Shohei Ohtani didn’t have it at altitude. He lasted 4.0 innings and was tagged for nine hits and five earned runs with no walks and three strikeouts (66 pitches). He even took a 93-mph comebacker off the right knee in the fourth but stayed in to finish the inning—this was still his shortest, choppiest outing since returning to the mound.
It started with promise: Ohtani opened his 1,000th career MLB game by smoking a leadoff double, then struck out the first batter he faced in the bottom half. The good vibes stopped there.
The Game Turned Early—and Stayed There
Colorado did the bulk of its damage in two bursts. In the second inning, a single, another single, and Brenton Doyle’s RBI double put the Rockies on top, and a sac fly made it 2–0. Two innings later, the inning unraveled: single, double (with a throwing error that let a run score), two more singles, and another RBI knock made it 5–0. By then the tone of the night was set.
The Rockies kept stacking base hits—16 of them—and tacked on late insurance. This wasn’t bloop-and-pray; it was steady traffic and timely swings. Maybe more importantly for the Dodgers’ season, Ohtani was smacked pretty good on the leg by an Orlando Arcia comebacker in the fourth. He finished the inning and got another plate appearance in the game, but with the score out of reach, he was lifted before his final at bat. Yikes. Stay tuned on that one.
Bats Flat
After Tuesday’s 18-hit party, the offense had nothing cooking. Los Angeles mustered four hits through eight and only dented the scoreboard on Teoscar Hernández’s solo shot in the sixth. A couple of late runs in the ninth dressed up the line a touch, but there was no real threat. Credit Colorado’s rookie Tanner Gordon for keeping the ball off barrels and the defense for turning a big double play to end the first.
Long Story Short
- Altitude + command slippage = trouble. Ohtani’s line (4.0 IP, 9 H, 5 ER) tells the story. Calling it his worst start of the year isn’t hyperbole.
- The lineup never answered. One swing from Teoscar, then a whole lot of quiet. Four hits through eight won’t win at Coors.
- This came against MLB’s worst by record. Colorado entered 36–90; the Dodgers 72–54. That’s what makes it feel so gross.
Some nights you tip your cap. This wasn’t one of them. This was a bad loss to a bad team, full stop. Flush it, file it under “Coors Weirdness,” and move on. Tomorrow’s about salvaging the split and reestablishing the standard.
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