DENVER — With apologies to Yogi Berra, it ain’t never over at Coors Field.
The Dodgers were ready to grab the brooms from the mile-high grounds crew and sweep their way out of town, entering the seventh inning with a two-run lead in Wednesday night’s series finale, but the unpredictable late innings at high altitude saw a change in fortune as the Colorado Rockies battled back to tie the score in the seventh before a 10th-inning sacrifice fly from Freddie Freeman gave the Dodgers the lead en route to a 6-4 win.
“This is a tough place to win baseball games,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Crazy things happen.”
Freeman’s sac fly came after Teoscar Hernandez’s leadoff single in the 10th sent Andy Pages, the ghost runner, to third. Freeman plated Pages and Hernandez was able to advance to second on the fly before scoring on Mookie Betts’ third hit of the night – a single up the middle.
Betts looked at the sweep as providing the blueprint for the Dodgers’ stretch run with the team firing on all cylinders.
“Kind of like in the World Series last year, you got to win the big moments, and that’s usually how you win the games,” said Betts, who went 3 for 5 with a home run, two RBIs and two runs scored. “Playing consistent and being ready for the moments is the most important thing.”
One of those moments came as the game took a turn after the seventh-inning stretch, when reliever Alex Vesia entered the game with a 4-2 lead. The left-hander got two quick outs before walking Jake McCarthy and giving up a 399-foot homer to right field to Mickey Moniak – who finished a triple shy of a cycle – to tie the score and erase a solid effort from starting pitcher Roki Sasaki.
The Dodgers went down in order in the eighth and ninth, but the Rockies could only muster a leadoff walk in the eighth and an infield hit after they challenged an out call in their final at-bats of regulation.
Shohei Ohtani was 0 for 4 with a walk, striking out in his final at-bat to snap his 22-game hitting streak at Coors Field. He drew the walk against Mark Manfredi, who was making his major-league debut with Ohtani as the first batter he faced.
Roberts played a hunch when he kept struggling Kyle Tucker in the lineup while resting a number of veterans on Wednesday, and Tucker delivered, going 2 for 5 with a run scored and contributing to two early run-scoring rallies.
Kiké Hernandez drove home Betts with an RBI single for the game’s first run in the second, and the Dodgers extended their lead to 4-0 on a pair of fourth-inning homers from Betts and Hernandez as Rockies starter Kyle Freeland left the game with neck tightness following Hernandez’s two-run shot.
“I’ve talked more this year about my injuries than about what I’ve done on the field,” Hernandez said of a season thwarted by 53 games lost to elbow surgery and another 51 lost to an oblique injury. “It feels good to, every once in a while, help the team out. Hopefully, I can remember what I did today and keep it going.”
Sasaki pitched a solid five innings for the Dodgers, allowing two runs (both earned) on seven hits and a walk while striking out six. He faced traffic in every inning, running his pitch count up to 99, including 73 for strikes. He is 2-0 with a 2.31 ERA (35 innings) since the All-Star break and has allowed two or fewer runs in each of his six starts over that stretch.
“Roki is not a finished product, but he’s gotten considerably better from last year,” Roberts said. “Since the break, you look at the numbers – he’s been outstanding. The fastball was good, the split was good, and he didn’t run from altitude.”
Tanner Scott came on for his second save in two nights, pitching a perfect 10th for his team-best 18th save after throwing 27 pitches during a four-out save on Tuesday.
“You’d like to stay away from him, but these games are important,” Roberts said, noting that Scott told him before the game he was available if needed. “I trusted what he said, and he did a fantastic job tonight. He’s a winner, and he’ll do whatever it takes to help us win the ball game.”
The Dodgers remained unbeaten (4-0) in extra innings this season while wrapping up their National League-leading ninth series sweep.
It was the Dodgers’ ninth win in their past 10 games against the Rockies, and they improved to 100-39 (.719) against Colorado since 2018, the best record of any team with at least 60 games against a single opponent during that stretch. They finished 10-3 against the Rockies this season, having also swept them May 25-27 at home.
“A week ago, we were in a dark place,” Roberts said. “It was just good to see us come back this series and play the way we’re capable of.”