Dodgers win over Rockies marred by injury to Kike…
As Mookie Betts mirrored on his two-homer efficiency in the Dodgers’ 15-6 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night time, he paused to look to the other aspect of the room.
“It sucks, it sucks,” Betts said as he regarded in the direction of Hernández’s locker.
Just two days into his return to the Dodgers, Kiké Hernández was heading back to the injured checklist with a strained left indirect. Hernández missed the first two months of the season rehabilitating his surgically-repaired left elbow.
Mookie Betts belts a two-run homer in the first inning of the Dodgers’ 15-6 blowout win over the Rockies on May 26, 2026 in Los Angeles. Getty Images
Alex Freeland will probably be called up from triple-A Oklahoma City to substitute Hernández on the lively roster, supervisor Dave Roberts said.
The news might have been even worse for the Dodgers, as Shohei Ohtani remained on observe to pitch on Wednesday after being hit by a pitch on his proper hand.
The fourth-inning changeup by Kyle Freeland that struck Ohtani on his pitching hand, Roberts said, “got him on the pad” and “clipped his pinky a little bit.” With the Dodgers forward by a 10-1 margin, Roberts said he pinch hit for Ohtani the next inning to better put together him to pitch the next day.
Roberts said he was unsure whether or not Ohtani would also be the Dodgers’ designated hitter.
“Want to make sure he feels really good on the pitching side of things,” Roberts said.
The injury to Hernández and the scare to Ohtani practically overshadowed a breakout recreation for Betts, who began the day with a .165 average.
Wanting to give Betts “a different look,” Roberts eliminated him from his customary place in the two-hole and drew up a lineup in which he was the cleanup hitter.
Betts homered in the first inning and again in the sixth. He completed with his first three-hit recreation of the season.
He was slowed down by an indirect pressure of his own, the injury costing him 5 weeks. Before Tuesday night time, he’d been hitting .157 in the 12 video games he performed after his return.
Kiké Hernández, who later left the sport with a strained left indirect and is headed back to the IL, belts a solo homer in the third inning of the Dodgers blowout win over the Rockies. Getty Images
“The work that we put in finally translated,” Betts said.
The Dodgers matched their highest run complete of the season and completed with a complete of 5 home runs, as Hernandez, Andy Pages and Will Smith also went deep. The recreation wasn’t as close as the rating indicated, as the Rockies scored 5 runs in the ninth inning, which was pitched by utilityman Miguel Rojas.
What it means
The Rockies are dangerous. They’re Arte-Moreno-owned-Angels dangerous. But the video games against them rely as a lot as the video games against any other staff, and the Dodgers have taken benefit of that to widen their lead in the National League West.
They got here into this collection forward of the second-place San Diego Padres by 1 ½ video games. The margin has elevated to 3 ½.
Who’s sizzling
Bargain-priced pickup Eric Lauer was more than appropriate in his position as a stand-in for the sidelined Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, as he restricted the Rockies to a run and 4 hits over six innings.
Lauer was 1-5 with a 6.69 earned-run average this season with the Toronto Blue Jays, who tossed him to the Dodgers for money concerns.
Shohei Ohtani grimaces in pain after getting hit by a pitch from Kyle Freeland during the Dodgers’ blowout win over the Rockies. Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images
Maybe he actually just needed a change of surroundings. Or a recreation against the Rockies.
Whatever the case, he made only one major mistake: a middle-middle 91-mph fastball that Hunter Goodman deposited over the center-field wall.
Who’s not
Hard to decide anybody when every starter apart from Ohtani collected at least one hit, but it’s clear now that a two-hit recreation on Sunday in Milwaukee wasn’t an inflection level in Kyle Tucker’s season.
While Tucker has taken better at-bats in current video games, he’s 1 for 9 in this collection. His only hit was a single in the sixth inning.
He is batting .245.
Up next
The collection concludes on Wednesday, with Shohei Ohtani (4-2, 0.73 earned-run average) taking his flip in the rotation against fellow countryman Tomoyuki Sugano (4-3, 3.86).
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