The Dodgers (60-33) played their sloppiest game of the season last night, committing two errors in the eighth to give the Rockies a 4-3 comeback win. The offense hit Michael Lorenzen hard but had very little to show for it, while Will Klein got charged with three unearned runs after Miguel Rojas booted a potential inning-ending double play ball and Alex Freeland threw a ball into the dugout on a bunt attempt where Rojas and Jack Dreyer both failed to cover third. Shohei Ohtani hit his 300th homer, Justin Wrobleski was good again and Evan Phillips struck out two in his first inning of work in over a year so not a terrible loss in the grand scheme of things, but now the Dodgers need a win tonight for a series win against the Rockies.
7:10 P.M.
Los Angeles
DH
McCarthy (L)
DH
Ohtani (L)
LF
Moniak (L)
2B
Edman (S)
CF
Carrigg (S)
1B
Freeman (L)
1B
Rumfield (L)
SS
Betts
3B
Karros
3B
Muncy (L)
RF
Johnston (L)
LF
T. Hernández
2B
Julien (L)
RF
Tucker (L)
SS
Tovar
CF
Call
C
Sullivan (L)
C
Alfonzo (S)
P
Hughes (R)
P
Sasaki (R)
Roki Sasaki gets the ball looking to snap a really rough four-start stretch. Sasaki posted a 3.18 ERA/3.37 FIP in May and dominated the Angels in his first start of June with seven shutout innings of two-hit, 10 strikeout ball, but things have been rough since. In four starts since that Angel start, Sasaki’s only completed five innings once after doing so eight times in his first 11 starts. He’s allowed 19 runs, 21 hits and seven homers in 17 innings in this stretch and has 15 strikeouts and 11 walks, which is all not great. He gave up seven runs against the White Sox before back-to-back three run outings against Baltimore and San Diego. He faced the Padres again last time out and gave up three homers in the first two innings. Manny Machado hit a two-run bomb off him in the first and Jackson Merrill led the second off with a homer. He then gave up a ground rule double before getting two outs, then issued a walk and gave up another homer to Jake Cronenworth. He got right back in trouble with a walk and double after the homer, but got a pop out to end the threat. Roki gave up another ground rule double in the third, but finished off the inning before getting pulled for the shortest start of his season. Sasaki faced the Rockies back in Colorado in May and only allowed one baserunner through the first three innings, but got in trouble in the fourth and failed to get out of the fifth. Sasaki gave up two hits, a walk and a HBP for a fourth-inning run and started the fifth with a Kyle Karros homer, then gave up a double and an RBI single before recording an out. He got two outs, but issued another walk to end his night with two on and two outs in the fifth. Alex Vesia did strand the runners, but Blake Treinen and Edwin Diaz each gave up three runs without recording an out for a 9-6 Rockie win.
Gabriel Hughes gets his first career start today for the Rockies. Hughes is their 16th-ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline and was the 10th pick in the 2022 MLB Draft out of Gonzaga. His time in pro ball has been pretty rough as he had Tommy John in 2023 and has only thrown 221 2/3 innings in the four years since he was drafted. Hughes reached AAA last season and started 2026 there, allowing 24 runs in 25 innings over his first six starts this season. He had an oblique issue that cost him a month and he made two rehab starts at High A, where it seems like he turned a corner. Hughes allowed two hits in six scoreless innings in those two starts before returning to AAA where he stayed on track, allowing four hits in 15 2/3 scoreless innings over those three starts. This stretch earned Hughes his first promotion and he debuted last Friday against the Giants, where he recorded a three-inning save (shoutout Eric) and allowed two hits and no runs. That’s 24.2 scoreless innings over his last six outings with only eight hits allowed in that time. Starting a game against the Dodgers figures to be a new challenge for Hughes, but it’s promising to see him look like the top-10 pick he was.
Hard to gleam too much from Savant with only three innings of mop-up data to rely on, but Hughes averaged 93.6 MPH on his fastball against the Giants. Pipeline said he was sitting 91-92 in the Minors last year and that he does have some natural sink with it.
Mookie Betts and Teoscar Hernandez return to the lineup after off days yesterday. Andy Pages gets the day off today with Alex Call getting the start in center. Tommy Edman starts at second and bats second in Pages’ place. Dalton Rushing also gets the day off, with Eliezer Alfonzo getting his second start behind the plate.
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Not many updates pregame. Diaz faced batters earlier and Blake Snell threw off the mound, but not really any news coming out of that.
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First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.
