DENVER—Shohei Ohtani had three hits, James Paxton pitched seven smooth innings, and the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies 9–5 on Monday night in the opener of a four-game series between the top and bottom teams in the National League West.
Miguel Rojas and Jason Heyward also had three hits apiece for the first-place Dodgers, who finished with 14. Freddie Freeman walked five times, one shy of a major-league record.
“Over the last few weeks, I know we haven’t been swinging the way we wanted to, but it felt like the bats were getting better and better as each day went on,“ Freeman said. ”Today, we just kind of put it all together.”
Ohtani doubled twice, drove in a run, and had his third multi-hit performance in his past four games, a stretch in which he has seven hits in 15 at-bats. The two-time American League most valuable player entered the game second in the major leagues in extra-base hits, tied for fifth in hits, and sixth in batting average.
Paxton (7–1) permitted just one run and two hits in his longest outing of the season. He had a season-high eight strikeouts and walked only one in his first career start at hitter-friendly Coors Field.
“If you’re thinking about it being Coors Field and the ball flying and you’re worried about that, you’re not focused on the pitch you’re throwing,“ Paxton said. ”You can’t be distracted by stuff like that.”
Los Angeles left 13 runners on base, equaling its most this season.
The loss was the Rockies’ sixth in their past eight games and 12th in 16 games in June. During that stretch, they’ve been outscored 109–66.
Jacob Stallings, Greg Jones, and Hunter Goodman homered for Colorado, which got four runs in the ninth inning off reliever J.P. Feyereisen. Jones’ home run, which came as a pinch hitter in the ninth, was his first career hit.
Rockies starter Cal Quantrill (6–5) gave up three earned runs and seven hits in five innings. The 29-year-old right-hander entered 6–1 with a 1.91 earned-run average over his previous eight starts.
