Freeland's Throwing Error Hands Colorado a Stunning 8th-Inning Comeback
The Dodgers were one out away from a comfortable win when their own second baseman threw it away — twice. A sacrifice bunt turned into a two-run disaster, and Colorado walked out of Los Angeles with a 4-3 victory on July 8, 2026.
Shohei Ohtani set the tone immediately, launching a 409-foot home run to center in the first inning to put Los Angeles up 1-0. The Dodgers kept building from there — a walk to Pages in the fifth scored Freeland to make it 2-0, and then Freeland himself singled to left in the sixth to score Edman and push the lead to 3-1. Colorado had scratched one back in the sixth when McCarthy grounded out to shortstop and Carrigg scored, but at 3-1 heading into the late innings, Justin Wrobleski had given Los Angeles every reason to feel good about this one. Wrobleski was sharp all night: 7.0 innings, 6 hits, 1 earned run, 2 walks, and 9 strikeouts — the kind of start that should win ballgames.
The eighth inning is where it all unraveled. Colorado got a run when a fielder's choice to shortstop scored Karros, and Carrigg reached third on a fielding error by shortstop Rojas to make it 3-2. That was uncomfortable, but manageable. Then came the play that decided everything: McCarthy dropped a sacrifice bunt to third, and what should have been a routine out turned into a catastrophe. Carrigg scored on an error, and then Freeland's throwing error at second base allowed Freeman to score as well. Two runs, zero contact of consequence, and suddenly Colorado led 4-3. The win probability swung from 69% to 42% on that single sequence — a 27-point collapse on a bunt.
The story of the night, it appears, was Los Angeles beating itself. Wrobleski and Evan Phillips — who threw a clean inning with 2 strikeouts — did their jobs. Freeland went 3-for-4 with an RBI at the plate, which looks like a strong individual performance until you account for the throw that cost his team the game. For Colorado, Carrigg scored twice and McCarthy drove in both late runs without recording a hit — going 0-for-2 with 2 RBI entirely on a groundout and a bunt. Juan Mejia locked it down with 2.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen. The Rockies didn't outplay the Dodgers so much as they outlasted them, and on this night, that was enough.