One week after the Colorado Rockies took two of three games against the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers, they will press their luck in another National League West duel between the teams, this time at Los Angeles.
While the Rockies welcomed Arizona to Colorado this past weekend and won two of three games, the Dodgers returned home from a three-city road trip capped off by winning three of four games against the second-place San Diego Padres.
The Rockies will try for more success against the Dodgers by sending left-hander Kyle Freeland to the mound in the series opener. Freeland got the best of a matchup against Dodgers star left-hander Clayton Kershaw on Tuesday at Colorado.
Freeland (4-5, 4.31 ERA) gave up three runs on six hits over six innings against one of baseball’s best offenses, leading the way to a 7-4 victory, which was the Rockies’ second consecutive against the Dodgers.
The victory made Freeland 4-8 lifetime against the Dodgers with a 4.42 ERA in 18 starts.
The Rockies got two three-run home runs from C.J. Cron on Sunday and rallied for a 6-5 victory over the Diamondbacks. Cron hit the go-ahead home run — his 19th of the season — in the eighth.
Despite being 11 games under .500, Colorado is now 15-13 against the NL West by winning consecutive series against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks.
“The group of guys we have in this clubhouse have gotten to know the NL West pretty well, and they’ve done a good job of recognizing what they need to do in their game plan, whether it’s pitching or hitting,” Freeland said.
The Dodgers were just two outs away from a four-game sweep of the Padres on Sunday before San Diego rallied for four runs in the ninth inning for a 4-2 victory. The comeback started after Dodgers closer Craig Kimbrel was hit by a line drive in the back of the right shoulder and ended up allowing three runs.
“We had a great series,” said Kershaw, who started Sunday’s game with seven scoreless innings. “Obviously we would have loved to win this one but three out of four against the second-place team is important and we’ll take that.”
The Dodgers had four consecutive strong starts against the Padres from Mitch White, Tony Gonsolin, Tyler Anderson and Kershaw. Now comes a chance for Julio Urias (6-6, 2.64), who will be making his second consecutive start against the Rockies.
Urias gave the Dodgers their only victory in last week’s series at Colorado when he gave up three runs on six hits over 5 1/3 innings Wednesday and the offense offered up home runs from Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Cody Bellinger.
Urias is 3-2 with a 5.56 ERA in 16 appearances (13 starts) against the Rockies. Cron has 10 career RBIs against Urias, the most the Dodgers’ left-hander has allowed to any Rockies hitter.
Dodgers right fielder Mookie Betts had two doubles Sunday in his first game since missing 15 contests with a cracked right rib. But Los Angeles manager Dave Roberts said Kimbrel likely will miss a few games after taking the line drive off his back.
–Field Level Media
