T.J. Rumfield got a gift when his long flyball bounced off Jo Adell’s head for a most unusual home run, and the Colorado Rockies defeated the Angels8-2 on Tuesday night.
Willi Castro hit a three-run homer in the fourth inning and Hunter Goodman had a solo shot in the second. Tomoyuki Sugano (5-4) gave up two runs in five innings for the win.
Castro and Rumfield hit back-to-back homers in the fourth off starter Grayson Rodriguez (2-2), who gave up eight runs, eight hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings.
With the Rockies holding a 7-0 lead, Rumfield sent a flyball to deep right-center, where the ball grazed the outside of Adell’s glove before hitting his head and bounding over the wall.
There was brief confusion on the field when the ball caromed back into the outfield. Rumfield stopped at second base, initially unsure of the ruling, before proceeding around the bases.
TJ Rumfield hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the ninth inning and the Colorado Rockies used a five-run eighth to rally past the Angels 9-8 on Monday night.
Hunter Goodman put Colorado ahead 8-6 with a three-run homer in the eighth. Jake McCarthy homered earlier for the Rockies, who have won more games this season (23) than they did before the All-Star break last year.
Jorge Soler’s two-run triple for the Angels tied it 8-8 in the bottom of the eighth.
McCarthy doubled in the ninth to move Kyle Karros to third before Rumfield drove him home with a sac fly to right field for a 9-8 lead. McCarthy finished two for four at the plate, including a solo homer in the third for a 2-0 lead.
Troy Johnston plated Colorado’s first run with an RBI single in the first, and Sterlin Thompson added an RBI single in the fifth to pull the Rockies to 5-3.
Karros’ RBI double in the eighth sparked the five-run rally. Tyler Freeman tacked on an RBI single and Goodman capped the outburst with his 14th homer — a three-run drive over the left-field wall.
Antonio Senzatela (5-0) threw 1 2/3 scoreless innings for the win. Kyle Freeland gave up six runs, five earned, and seven hits in 5 2/3 innings.
Kirby Yates (0-1) gave up the go-ahead run in the ninth.
José Soriano pitched the first 4 2/3 innings for the Angels, giving up three runs on three hits and striking out seven. He also hit two batters with pitches and walked seven — a career high. He became the first Angels pitcher to issue seven free passes in a game since Garrett Richards on Sept. 2, 2013.
Jo Adell hit an RBI single in the third before Jose Siri drilled his second career grand slam to put the Angels up 5-2 in the third. Vaughn Grissom scored on a throwing error by Goodman in the fifth for a 6-3 lead.
Their steamroll hit a speed bump as they squandered opportunities in Saturday’s 4-3 loss to the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.
Even the hottest of Dodgers’ hitters cooled off as the night did. Collectively, they went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base, including two in the ninth inning.
Now 15-5, it was their first loss in five games and their first all season to a National League opponent.
Kyle Tucker, the Dodgers’ pricey new right fielder, had three hits, including his third home run this season. And backup catcher Dalton Rushing hit his fifth home run.
But that was all the damage the Dodgers did in support of starter Emmet Sheehan, who left with a one-run lead that reliever Will Klein relinquished in a matter of three batters in the sixth inning.
Shohei Ohtani also saw his career-best on-base streak reach 50 when he singled in the ninth inning to tie Willie Keeler’s 50-game mark established in 1901.
The two-time reining World Series champs threw the proverbial first punch when Tucker launched a 435-foot two-run home run into the second deck, making it 2-0 two batters into the game.
Tucker’s third home run as a Dodger drove home Ohtani, who chopped the first pitch he saw to Troy Johnston and would have been out at first if not for the errant throw by the first baseman.
In the bottom of the first, the Rockies responded when Mickey Moniak doubled and TJ Rumfield drove him in with a single to cut the lead in half, 2-1.
Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing follows the flight of his solo home run off Colorado pitcher Ryan Feltner Saturday in Denver.
(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)
The Dodgers came right back in the second inning, when Rushing — in his one expected start behind the plate this series — kept crushing, launching a 1-1 pitch 371 feet over the right field wall to make it 3-1. It was his fifth home run in 18 at-bats until that point.
The Dodgers’ two home runs in the first two innings gave them multiple homers in 10 of their first 20 games this season — and ran their MLB-leading season total to 37 as a team.
But the Rockies returned serve in the bottom of the second, when Johnston scored on a Kyle Karros sacrifice fly to stay within a run, 3-2.
That’s how it stayed for the next three innings, as Sheehan got out of the third and fourth unscathed, despite the Rockies putting runners in scoring position in both the third and fourth. His only 1-2-3 inning was the nine-pitch fifth.
His control wasn’t as sharp as in his prior outing, but he left after five innings with the lead, having thrown 77 pitches, allowed four hits, two runs, struck out four and walked two.
The Dodgers got something going again in the sixth inning when Freddie Freeman hit a one-out triple into the gap in the expansive Colorado outfield, just beyond the grasp of diving center fielder Brenton Doyle.
A batter later, the Rockies’ diving third baseman Karros made a nifty play to throw out Teoscar Hernández after he drilled a ball up the line — holding Freeman at third in the process.
Then left-hander Brennan Bernardino came on in relief and tied up a clearly frustrated Max Muncy with a curveball, striking him out and ending a scoreless inning with Freeman stranded on third.
Klein took the loss after taking over for the Dodgers in the sixth and immediately gave up a double to Hunter Goodman before Ezequiel Tovar’s grounder ricocheted off Klein’s left foot and right knee. Tovar reached before Freeman could corral the ball and get it to Klein at first.
Both runners scored on a no-out double by Johnston and Colorado had a 4-3 lead that would stand.
In the eighth, “Let’s go Dodgers” chants picked up with Andy Pages at bat and Ohtani and Tucker on first and second base. But Pages struck out on a strike that was determined to find the bottom of the zone by baseball’s new ABS system.
Hernández then walked to load the bases but Muncy grounded out to second base, leaving more runners stranded.
