Dodgers rally – The Dodgers’ bullpen’s scoreless streak finally ended in the seventh inning, but the offense answered. With three free bases on offer, Los Angeles scored four runs and beat the Rockies 5-3 in the series opener at Dodger Stadium.
LOS ANGELES — For nearly four months, the Dodgers’ bullpen had been doing one thing with relentless consistency: keeping the opposition from scoring. Then the inning came when it finally broke.
In the bottom of the seventh, the relief corps let up its first run in 38 innings. The Rockies made it hurt immediately, and by the time Ezequiel Tovar turned the count into a swing, Los Angeles had something it hadn’t dealt with in a while—trailing.
Dating back to May 12, specifically the eighth inning of a 6-2 loss to the Giants, the Dodgers had not allowed a run until Monday night against the Rockies. The streak ended when right-hander Kyle Hurt surrendered a solo homer to Tovar, and the Dodgers fell behind by two.
Dave Roberts didn’t sound surprised. “All good things are meant to come to an end,” he said. “And we’ll start another one.”
The deficit didn’t last.
In the Dodgers’ half of the seventh, the rally started with walks. Will Smith and Hyeseong Kim drew back-to-back free passes from right-hander Juan Mejia. creating pressure with nobody getting recorded in the box. Dalton Rushing was announced as the pinch-hitter for Kiké Hernández. who went 2-for-2 with an RBI double and played third base in his season debut.
But the Rockies changed pitchers anyway. Mejia was lifted for left-hander Brennan Bernardino, and Roberts adjusted again—Miguel Rojas took over in place of Rushing.
Bernardino didn’t just change the matchup. He loaded the bases. Rojas was hit on the left foot by Bernardino, forcing the situation into the Dodgers’ favor with no outs.
Then the top of the order did what the inning demanded.
Shohei Ohtani brought in one run on a fielder’s choice that was initially ruled a double play before being overturned on a Dodgers challenge. Mookie Betts tied it up on a sacrifice fly. Freddie Freeman knocked in the go-ahead run on an RBI double. and Andy Pages added an insurance run with a base hit.
Roberts later framed the comeback as something that felt like inevitability once the inning started to move. “Fortunately, we were kind of victims of good fortune, allowing ourselves to build that inning,” he said. “We started getting some hits, which was great. It was good to see us show some life tonight.”.
For the Dodgers, one worry followed them into the next minutes: Rojas’s health. After being hit on the foot, he was moving around in clear discomfort. Even so. he was the last available infielder on the bench because Los Angeles was staying away from Max Muncy. who was hit by a pitch on the right hand on Friday. Muncy appeared on the SportsNet LA broadcast with a first-base glove in his hand. but the team didn’t need to test him in the field.
Roberts said the next step was checking whether the body could hold up.
Not only did Rojas feel well enough to play the eighth and ninth innings at third base, but Roberts also said he should be in Tuesday’s starting lineup against Rockies left-hander Kyle Freeland.
“I just didn’t know how bad Miggy was, so I wanted to kind of check in on Max to see if he could potentially go out there and stand at third base,” Roberts said. “He was up for it, but fortunately, we didn’t have to use that.”
By the time the seventh ended, the Dodgers had turned a two-run hole into a two-run lead. Through seven innings, they led by two runs after briefly trailing by the same number—more than enough for the bullpen to regain control.
Will Klein, Alex Vesia and Blake Treinen took over and kept the Rockies off the board for the final two innings, sealing a 5-3 series-opening victory at Dodger Stadium.
Maybe the streak didn’t end the way everyone wanted. It still ended.
But the response came quickly, with the kind of offense that makes a broken run feel like a reset instead of a warning.
Dodgers Rockies bullpen streak Kyle Hurt Ezequiel Tovar Juan Mejia Brennan Bernardino Will Smith Hyeseong Kim Miguel Rojas Shohei Ohtani Mookie Betts Freddie Freeman Andy Pages Dave Roberts Dodger Stadium Kyle Freeland