If you didn’t know anything about these two teams watching this game, you could swear you were witnessing a fiercely contested battle of heavyweights as the Dodgers outlasted the Rockies in a 3-1 win at home. Tyler Glasnow and Chase Dollander were both outstanding, and it ended up being the efforts of the red-hot Mookie Betts against the Rockies’ bullpen that decided the game, with a two-run go-ahead double in the bottom of the seventh.
Questions about
Glasnow’s ability are nonexistent in his Dodger tenure, and for anyone who was concerned about his health following a minor back tightness scare, the Rockies offense can attest to everything being fine with the Dodgers starter. Glasnow was literally unhittable through seven magnificent innings with some changes to his arsenal.
It’s no secret that Glasnow has started to feature a sinker somewhat routinely this season. Still, in this game against the Rockies, he took that to a whole new level, often deferring to that pitch over his traditional four-seamer, which he only used 19% of the time. For some context, Glasnow hadn’t used his four-seamer so infrequently in an outing since his days as a Pirate back in 2017. The star of the show, however, was the curveball, a pitch he landed for strikes and generated whiffs on it at will.
Despite not allowing a hit across his entire performance, Glasnow still let one run across, and one that for the vast majority of this game loomed large. Back in the second inning, the Rockies played winning baseball against a tough customer, maximizing the opportunity of a leadoff walk. Jordan Beck got on, stole second, and moved 90 feet on back-to-back flyouts to score Colorado’s only run.
Other than that, the Rockies got nothing off Glasnow, and they never seemed close to it at any point. There are dominant games, and there are dominant games. When Glasnow is on, there is a sense of inevitability to the whole thing that was palpable in tonight’s game.
Under normal circumstances, we’d be talking about an easy win with this level of pitching performance against a last-place team. And you already know there is nothing normal about the Dodgers’ current circumstances, and Los Angeles needed every bit of those seven no-hit frames to keep this game close against the Rockies.
For as extraordinary as Glasnow was, he still trailed Chase Dollander from the second until the sixth inning, with the youngster doing a full 180 from his previous two disastrous performances against the Dodgers. Dollander held the Dodgers to five scoreless innings before a walk to Ben Rortvedt to lead off the sixth prompted the trainer to come out, and ultimately his removal with an apparent injury and/or discomfort. Freeman would drive in that walk to tie the game, but Teoscar Hernández and Michael Conforto wasted a bases-loaded opportunity, leaving it at 1-1.
Los Angeles eventually got the lead with Ohtani and Betts showing up big in a two-out situation in the seventh. Unlike the Rockies’ bullpen, the Dodgers’ one was able to shut things down with the same duo on the hook for Saturday’s gut-wrenching defeat in Baltimore, Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott. The two veterans got right back in the swing of things and made their appearances count in a difficult game. Scott had the chance to complete what would’ve been a combined no-hitter, but he allowed a leadoff double in the top of the ninth. Most importantly, though, the left-hander got the save, retiring the next three.
Game particulars
- Home runs: none
- WP —Tyler Glasnow (2-3): 7 IP, 0 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 11 strikeouts
- LP — Angel Chivilli (1-5): 1 IP, 2 hits, 2 runs, 1 strikeout
- SV – Tanner Scott (21): 1 IP, 1 hit
Up next
After getting bullied by Chase Dollander, the Dodgers face another Rockies starter with shockingly poor numbers in 2025. Germán Márquez and his 1.709 WHIP will be on the opposite side of Emmett Sheehan. The game will start at 7:10 p.m. (PT).
