Ohtani's 448-Foot Bomb Breaks Colorado's Back in 7-6 LAD Win
Shohei Ohtani crushed a 448-foot home run to right center in the third inning, swinging Colorado's win probability from 39% to 24% and effectively deciding a game the Dodgers won 7-6. The Rockies made it interesting late, but Los Angeles held on despite a ninth-inning scare that cut the deficit to one.
The game looked like it might be a blowout by the fourth inning, but it took a full nine to settle. Los Angeles drew first blood in the first on a Muncy sacrifice fly that scored Freeman, only for Colorado to answer immediately when Carrigg doubled to center and McCarthy scored to tie it at 1. Then came the third, and Ohtani. His two-run shot — 448 feet to right center — put the Dodgers up 3-1 and, as the numbers show, fundamentally shifted the game's complexion. Colorado clawed back within the inning: Rumfield doubled to score Castro, then Norby doubled to score Rumfield, and just like that it was 3-3. The Rockies had life. Ryan Feltner, though, was running out of it.
The fourth inning is where Los Angeles buried Colorado's starter. Tucker doubled to score Edman, Teoscar Hernandez doubled to score Tucker, and Freeman added a sacrifice fly to center to score Hernandez — three runs, three doubles, and Feltner was done. He finished with 5.0 innings pitched, 8 hits, and 7 earned runs allowed. That's a line that loses ballgames. Eric Lauer wasn't sharp either — 5.0 innings, 6 hits, 4 earned runs — but the Dodgers' offense gave him enough runway. Willi Castro kept Colorado's pulse going with a solo shot to left center in the fifth (401 feet), and Freeman's sixth-inning single to left scored Hernandez to push the lead back to 7-4, which looked comfortable enough.
It wasn't. Colorado's late-game push looks, in hindsight, like a genuine warning. A Veen single to right scored Castro in the eighth to make it 7-5, and then in the ninth, Castro singled to left to score McCarthy and cut it to 7-6. Castro finished 2-for-3 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 3 runs scored — the story of the night for the losing side, a one-man offense who nearly willed his team back. Los Angeles' bullpen — Jack Dreyer with a clean seventh (2 K, 0 H) and Edgardo Henriquez with a clean eighth (2 K, 0 H) — appears to have been the difference. The ninth was messier, but the Dodgers survived. Final: LAD 7, COL 6.