Dodgers Drop Second Straight in Denver, Coors Field Chaos Ensues Again

For the first time since June 28, 2022, the Los Angeles Dodgers have managed the rare feat of losing back-to-back games to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field—an accomplishment no one in blue was particularly eager to revisit. Sunday’s 9–6 loss served as a reminder that baseball at altitude is less a sport and more a physics experiment with questionable supervision.

Roki Sasaki: Brilliant, Then… Coors Field

Roki Sasaki’s first career start at Coors Field opened like a controlled demo. Three innings, 26 pitches, no real stress. He let the defense do the early work, which is usually advisable in Denver, where fly balls occasionally file flight plans.

Then came the fourth, and with it, the reminder.

A leadoff single, a hit-by-pitch, and a walk quickly escalated things from calm to “find the nearest exit.” Sasaki escaped with a 4-6-3 double play, but the inning felt more like a warning than a reset.

The fifth removed any ambiguity. Kyle Karros launched a 448-foot home run—because apparently that’s just what he does against the Dodgers—and the Rockies followed with a string of contact that ranged from well-placed to mildly insulting. By the time Dave Roberts went to get him, Sasaki had thrown 52 pitches across his final 1⅔ innings, and a trend was becoming harder to ignore.

Through four starts, he’s been excellent the first time through the order—and increasingly vulnerable after that. His ERA from innings 3–5 now sits at 11.17.

The good news: the talent is obvious.

The less comforting news: major league lineups don’t stop after nine hitters.

Offense: Early Punches, Late Whimpers

The Dodgers did enough early to suggest this would be a routine Coors Field win.

Hyeseong Kim set the tone, Alex Freeland cashed in twice, and, drum roll please, Shohei Ohtani extended his on-base streak to 51 games—passing Willie Keeler and making another historically significant milestone look routine.

Ryan Ward added his first big-league hit and RBI, a moment that deserved a little more breathing room than the game allowed.

Freeland’s second RBI in the sixth briefly restored the lead. It also set the stage for what followed, which was less about offense and more about timing—specifically, the Rockies having better timing when it mattered.

Bullpen Roulette: Today’s Losing Spin Lands on Blake Treinen

Will Klein navigated his inning.

Blake Treinen did not.

Mickey Moniak jumped on the first pitch of the seventh for a go-ahead two-run homer, and things unraveled quickly from there. A double, a broken-bat bloop, and suddenly the inning had that familiar Coors Field feel—where nothing is particularly crushed, but everything lands anyway.

Treinen’s line: four batters, four hits, zero outs. Efficient, in a way that won’t be featured in any instructional videos.

Jack Dreyer eventually stopped the bleeding, with an assist from a heads-up deke in right field that nearly turned into something cleaner than the inning deserved. By then, the damage had settled in.

Díaz Returns, Coors Field Has Other Ideas

Edwin Díaz returned after nine days off and immediately found trouble, loading the bases with no outs in the eighth.

The Rockies responded with a two-run single and a groundout RBI, stretching the lead to four and marking their second three-run inning of the afternoon. It’s the kind of line you expect from a contender—not a team widely projected to spend October elsewhere.

Ninth-Inning Rally Falls Short

The Dodgers made one last push. Will Smith drove in a run, Max Muncy reached for the third time, and Andy Pages worked a walk to load the bases.

Dalton Rushing added an RBI groundout, bringing the tying run to the plate and giving Ward a chance at a very quick legend.

Instead, a diving catch in right-center ended it—because Coors Field, for all its chaos, still enforces an occasional sense of irony.

Game Notes

Home runs — Karros (COL), Moniak (COL) WP — Antonio Senzatela (1–0): 2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER LP — Treinen (1–1): 0 IP, 4 H, 3 ER

Up Next

The Dodgers will try to avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season Monday before heading to San Francisco. Justin Wrobleski gets the ball against José Quintana.