LOS ANGELES (AP) — Blake Snell struck out a season-high 11 in six innings, Mookie Betts hit a grand slam in the eighth and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9-0 on Wednesday night for their fourth straight win.
Helped by their third series sweep of the Rockies this season, the Dodgers increased their NL West lead to three games over San Diego, which lost 2-1 at home to Cincinnati.
Betts went 4 for 5 with five RBIs, capped by his seventh career slam on a 3-0 pitch from reliever Anthony
Molina to make it 8-0. Andy Pages and Ben Rortvedt singled and Shohei Ohtani reached on catcher's interference to load the bases.
Teoscar Hernández followed with a solo shot off Angel Chivilli, his third homer in two games.
Betts' two-out RBI double highlighted a four-run second against Rockies starter Kyle Freeland (4-15). The left-hander gave up four runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings with five strikeouts.
Snell (4-4) allowed singles to Tyler Freeman and Hunter Goodman plus two walks in ending a personal three-game skid with his first win since Aug. 16. It was a big bounceback from the left-hander's last start in which he gave up nine hits and five runs over five innings at Pittsburgh last week. The two-time Cy Young Award winner has 124 strikeouts in 14 career starts against the Rockies.
Dodgers catcher Will Smith was scratched minutes before the game with right hand soreness. It's the fifth game he's missed since taking a foul ball off his hand on Sept. 3.
After Dodgers reliever Michael Kopech loaded the bases with three straight walks with one out in the seventh, Alex Vesia came in and struck out pinch-hitter Mickey Moniak and Freeman to end the threat.
In the last five games, Dodgers starters in the first five innings have allowed a total of three hits.
Rockies RHP McCade Brown (0-3, 12.54 ERA) starts Thursday at San Diego against RHP Randy Vasquez (4-6, 3.91).
After a day off, Dodgers RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (11-8, 2.72 ERA) starts Friday at San Francisco against RHP Justin Verlander (3-10, 4.09).
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