The Los Angeles Dodgers stopped the skid in loud fashion Monday night, beating the Colorado Rockies 11-5 in the opener of a three-game series at Coors Field. Shohei Ohtani led the surge with two home runs and four hits, while Blake Snell worked six sharp innings for his first win of the season.
It was the kind of response the Dodgers had been searching for after a rough stretch in which they averaged 3.4 runs per game over 5-11. This time, they piled up 11 runs on 14 hits and turned an early lead into a rout, with Mookie Betts driving in a run with a double in the second inning and Max Muncy following with a three-run homer in the third that made it a five-run game.
Ohtani kept the pressure on from there. He extended his hitting streak at Coors Field to 21 games, a run in which he has hit.413 with nine homers and 24 RBIs, then opened the fifth with an opposite-field leadoff homer before adding a two-run shot in the sixth off Juan Mejia. The second drive was his 29th homer of the season and gave him his 25th career multi-homer game, his first against the Rockies.
Snell helped make the margin hold. He retired the first six Rockies he faced and allowed only one run in six innings, but his 27-inning scoreless streak against Colorado ended when Jake McCarthy brought in a run on a fielder's choice groundout. Dave Roberts said the left-hander was outstanding outside of the third inning and called the six-inning outing fantastic because it left the bullpen in a good spot for the next two games.
That is the part that matters after one game and one surge: the Dodgers finally looked like the group they have been trying to find, but they have only one win to show for it. They have the next two games of the series to prove this was the start of something sturdier than a burst at Coors Field.
