The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies on Friday night behind the brilliant pitching of right-hander Walker Buehler who struck out 11 Rockies en route to earning his fourth win of the season. Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager contributed at the plate with RBI doubles. The loss is the tenth out of the last 12 games for the Rockies bringing their record to an even 13-13 on the season. The Dodgers improved to 19-9 and maintained their four-game lead over the San Diego Padres in the NL West.
Mismatch on the mound
After a strong outing last week, Jon Gray could not provide a repeat performance tonight against the Dodgers. Gray struggled with his command repeatedly missing spots and leaving pitches up in the zone. The Dodgers didn’t help him out either as they were disciplined at the plate and did not chase many pitches out of the strike zone. The wheels came off for Gray in the fourth inning when he allowed the first three hitters to reach base on a double by AJ Pollock, an RBI single by Matt Beaty, and another single by Chris Taylor. It looked like Gray may escape the inning without further damage, but Corey Seager smashed a two-out double into right field scoring two more runs and chasing Gray from the game. The final line for Gray was 3 ⅔ IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 2 BB, 0 K.
Walker Buehler, on the other hand, was excellent for the Dodgers. He made use of his high nineties fastball and gruesome curve to stymie Rockies hitters to the tune of 11 strikeouts. He got into some trouble in the sixth inning when he let up three consecutive singles to Drew Butera, Raimel Tapia, and Trevor Story before getting Charlie Blackmon to strike out and Nolan Arenado to fly out to deep right field to end the inning.
Offensive struggles
The Rockies have had some serious issues scoring runs recently, notably from their biggest star players. On the night, the combo of Story, Blackmon, Arenado, and Daniel Murphy combined to go 2-for-15 with no extra-base hits and four left on base. The lone bright spot was an RBI single by Story in the sixth scoring the only run of the game for the Rockies. Arenado nearly missed tying the game when he flew out deep to right field to end the inning with runners on second and third. With momentum swinging the wrong way right now, it’s really important that the Rockies find a way to score some more runs with a tough stretch of road games ahead against NL West opponents.
Hilliard web gem
Showing he’s not just about slamming home runs, Sam Hilliard made an incredible catch in the bottom of the second inning saving two more runs from scoring on a deep ball hit by Seager.
A pitcher's best friend - @samhilliard25 pic.twitter.com/sXnMCLkJID
— AT&T SportsNet™ | RM (@ATTSportsNetRM) August 22, 2020
Up Next
The Rockies will take on the Dodgers again tomorrow in Los Angeles. Kyle Freeland (2-1, 2.56 ERA) will take on Dustin May (1-1 3.00 ERA).