second inning

DENVER — Shohei Ohtani paused to admire the flight of his no-doubt home run as it sailed to right-center field.

Clearly on a home-run trajectory, it was headed toward the visitor’s bullpen. From among the trees, Dodgers reliever Kyle Hurt’s glove shot up and secured the ball.

As Ohtani circled the bases, the bullpen turned into a mosh pit around Hurt.

In what has been a brutal August for the Dodgers, the vibes were undeniably high.

Maybe all the Dodgers needed was a trip to the Mile High City.

En route to an 11-5 win over the Rockies, Ohtani’s two-run blast in the sixth inning — his second homer of the game — widened the Dodgers’ lead to eight runs, a comfortable lead even at hitter-friendly Coors Field.

“Consistency is key, but today I think we should [come] away with a lot of big confidence,” said Ohtani, through interpreter Will Ireton, after his four-hit performance. “Doing this every day is what matters, but I think this is a big game for us.”

Even with Monday’s win, the Dodgers have a 6-10 record in August. And they entered Monday with a paltry .672 OPS, on pace for their worst offensive month of the season. For comparison, it posted a .710 OPS in July — its worst complete month.

There are plenty of asterisks to put on Monday’s victory. The altitude in Denver elevates any offense. And the Rockies have the worst record (50-75) in the National League.

Maybe what the Dodgers (75-51) needed most — after dropping three of four to the Brewers at Dodger Stadium and handing over the season series (and tiebreaker if it comes down to that) — was a lighter series to loosen them up.

“I think it kind of gets to what makes you good as an offense,” manager Dave Roberts said, “and that’s what makes us good: earning pitches, winning counts, spoiling pitches, those kinds of things.”

It was already working by the second inning when Max Muncy scored from first on Mookie Betts’ double into the left-center gap of the expansive Coors Field outfield.

The next inning, Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and Andy Pages singled one after another for a second run.

Then Muncy, after falling behind 0-2 and then working an eight-pitch at-bat, demolished a sinker that Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano left over the center of the plate, giving it a ride to the second deck in right-center.

“That’s who we are,” Roberts said. “That’s what we’ve been searching for for quite some time. And today, I thought the at-bat that really kind of encapsulates who we are is the Muncy at-bat.”

It was Muncy’s third home run in five games, and they’ve all been momentum-swingers. His pinch-hit home run Thursday gave the Dodgers the lead over the Brewers — before Edwin Díaz’s blown save. On Sunday, his solo shot temporarily tied the score before the Dodgers’ loss.

On Monday, his three-run blast put the Dodgers up 5-0 in the third.

Dodgers starting pitcher Blake Snell delivers against the Colorado Rockies in the second inning Monday.

(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

Dodgers starter Blake Snell, who held the Rockies to one run and two hits in six innings, dominated the first two innings. Even with the altitude affecting the shape of his pitches, he was getting whiffs on his curveball. And he paired it with his four-seamer (and threw just one changeup) to retire six straight batters.

Then in the third, he temporarily lost command. Snell walked three straight, throwing 21 pitches. Snell got Rockies leadoff hitter Jake McCarthy to ground into a fielder’s choice, but it pushed a run across. But Snell avoided further damage by inducing Jordan Beck to fly out and Cole Carrigg to strike out.

He threw three straight curveballs to Carrigg, bouncing the first and last in the dirt, and Carrigg swung at all three.

Getting back on track, Snell navigated around a pair of singles in the fourth inning, before retiring the Rockies in order in the fifth and sixth.

“Certainly altitude kind of can play tricks on your stuff,” Roberts said. “But if there’s conviction behind your throw, you can still get major-league hitters out. And he proved that tonight.”

Meanwhile, the Dodgers added two more insurance runs in the fifth with a solo homer from Ohtani, a double from Pages and a couple of defensive bobbles by the Rockies.

Ohtani’s two-run homer in the next inning, followed soon after by an RBI single from Pages, made the Dodgers’ lead insurmountable.

The Rockies got one back in the seventh, with some help from Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker, who dropped a flyball. Then in the eighth, the Dodgers took advantage of an error by Carrigg in center field that allowed Ohtani to advance to second. Freeman drove him in with a double.

With an 11-2 lead, the Dodgers sent Díaz, who hadn’t pitched since Friday, to the mound for the ninth. Still working through delivery problems, he gave up four hits, three runs and hit a batter.

“Obviously the results weren’t good,” Roberts said. “But I still think that him getting out there, pitching major-league innings, is going to help him. So yeah, we’re still working through some things.”

Ohtani scheduled to throw

Ohtani said he’ll throw a bullpen session Tuesday, “assuming everything feels good.” It will be his third bullpen since receiving an Orthovisc injection in his left knee at the beginning of the All-Star break to lubricate the joint, but his second since restarting his throwing program. He last threw Friday, in a 34-pitch session.

“It’s nice to feel the progress on the pitching side,” Ohtani said. “And it just feels better, just going into the game as a hitter, less to focus, less to worry about.”

He said the hope is that he has gotten through the worst of his knee problem and won’t have any more setbacks.

“That’s the reason why we’ve been pretty careful in the rehab process,” he said, “and that’s the ideal outcome, to make sure that I come back as soon as possible.”

MINNEAPOLIS — Trevor Larnach homered and drove in two runs, Ryan Jeffers added a two-run double, and the Minnesota Twins beat the Angels 4-2 on Sunday and head into the All-Star break with eight wins in their last nine games.

Larnach’s single in the third inning scored Luke Keaschall, tying the score at 1. Jeffers followed with a double that knocked in Ryan Kreidler and Larnach for a 3-1 lead.

Larnach added a 405-foot homer to right in the eighth inning, his seventh of the season, as the Twins (48-49) won their fifth straight series.

Minnesota starter Taj Bradley (9-3) worked seven innings, giving up six hits and two earned runs with six strikeouts and a pair of walks. Andrew Morris struck out two over the last two innings and earned his third save.

Josh Lowe and Denzer Guzman hit solo home runs for the Angels (38-59), who dropped their fourth straight series. Lowe’s eighth of the season came in the second inning, and Guzman added his fourth in the seventh inning.

José Soriano (8-6) gave up five hits, three earned runs and two walks in five innings.

Up next for Angels: Host the Detroit Tigers for a three-game series starting Friday.

Josh Lowe‘s first career grand slam was all the offense the Angels needed Sunday in a 4-1 victory over the Athletics at Anaheim Stadium.

Lowe was 10 for 33 with 27 RBIs with the bases loaded during his six-year career, but had managed only two extra-base hits in those situations prior to going deep off starter Aaron Civale in the second inning.

The center fielder fouled off a pair of 1-2 pitches before sending a high cutter 403 feet to the right-field corner for his first homer since May 20.

Angels starter Sam Aldegheri (3-3) allowed one run and five hits in five innings, striking out four. José Fermin threw two scoreless innings and Samy Natera Jr. got four outs for his first major league save.

Joey Meneses drove in Jeff McNeil with a sacrifice fly in the fifth for the A’s, who finished with six hits. They went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position and left eight on base overall.

The A’s threatened to cut into the lead after two straight walks to open the eighth, but Ryan Zeferjahn struck out the next two batters before giving way to Natera, who retired Nick Kurtz on a fly ball.

Civale (5-5) permitted seven hits in five innings, striking out two. José Suarez tossed two scoreless innings in relief.

Up next: Angels RHP Ryan Johnson (1-2, 8.84 ERA) starts Monday night in Seattle against RHP George Kirby (6-7, 3.94) to begin a three-game set.

SAN DIEGO — One after another, Kyle Tucker and Dalton Rushing broke up their offensive slumps with home runs.

The Dodgers’ sixth-inning rally, en route to a 15-3 victory against the Padres at Petco Park Saturday, featured blasts from the two hitters who needed individual victories at the plate.

Tucker, who entered Saturday with just a .700 OPS, had gone four straight games without a hit. Rushing went hitless in the previous five, in a rough seven-week stretch.

“It’s tough,” Tucker said of his uncharacteristically slow offensive start. “You just have to try and stay positive as much as you can. … We’re going to enjoy the win, but you’ve got another game tomorrow, and you’ve gotta move on to that. Anything that happened yesterday, you’ve got to move on, do your best at that, move on to the next game, and try to improve and try to help your team win.”

Tucker and Rushing’s home runs started the sunflower seed showers in a nine-run inning, which included a home run by Mookie Betts. Four of the runs scored in the sixth were unearned.

The Dodgers’ Dalton Rushing celebrates with Alex Freeland after hitting a home run against the Padres Saturday in San Diego.

(Tony Ding / Ap Photo/tony Ding)

The Dodgers took full advantage of the Padres’ defensive mistakes to jump-start their offense.

In the second inning, Max Muncy hit a line drive into the corner, and Padres right fielder Fernando Tatis Jr. dove after it. But he missed the catch, and the ball bounced behind him. Muncy legged out a triple. And that put him in position to score easily on Tommy Edman’s double to the center-field warning track for the first run of the game.

The Padres evened the score with a Gavin Sheets’ solo home run off Dodgers starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who’d go on to limit the Padres to two runs through six innings.

Shaky defense, however, came back to haunt the Padres the next inning.

With Freddie Freeman standing on second base, after a leadoff double against Padres right-hander Randy Vásquez, Muncy hit a sharp grounder to second baseman Will Wagner, who muffed the play. Freeman raced around the bases, scoring on a close play at the plate.

Then Edman, who’s been swinging a hot bat since making his season debut last week, tripled to drive in Muncy.

That’s when Tucker, who went three for five with four RBIs Saturday, stepped up to the plate. He won a nine-pitch battle, sending a cutter over the right-field fence.

“Kind of been looking for it all year,” Tucker said. “I just kind of caught the ball at the right point of contact. I didn’t really stay through it great, but I put a decent enough swing on it, got it to work out.”

Rushing was next, and also went long in a two-strike count.

The Dodgers kept extending the inning, with two walks and three more hits, including Betts’ three-run homer off Padres reliever Ron Marinaccio. It was Betts’ third home run in as many games.

The Padres chipped away at the lead with an RBI single from Sheets off Yamamoto in the sixth and another run against Dodgers reliever Kyle Hurt, who gave up two hits and issued two walks in one-third of an inning.

But the lead the Dodgers compiled in the sixth inning, plus the four runs they tacked on in the eighth with Muncy’s infield single, Edman’s bases-loaded groundout, and Tucker’s opposite-field single, was too steep to overcome.

By the ninth inning, both teams had position players pitching.

Injury update

The Dodgers hope to activate Teoscar Hernández (strained left hamstring) from the 10-day injured list on Monday, manager Dave Roberts said before Saturday’s game.

Hernández homered in all three of his triple-A rehab games, entering Saturday.

“Triple-A pitching is not comparative to big league pitching, I think we all know that,” Roberts said. “But if he’s healthy, he’s an easy guy to bet on.”

Catcher Will Smith, on the other hand, has not returned to baseball activities since receiving an injection to address his neck injury.

“I think we’re all surprised how long it’s taken,” Roberts said. “I hope he’s back before the All-Star break. But the more time he’s off, he’s going to have to play some [rehab] games. So that kind of cuts into the time of return to us. So I don’t really know. I don’t want to add any pressure to him. I want him to be healthy and then once he’s healthy we can have that conversation.”

MINNEAPOLIS — Dodgers right fielder Kyle Tucker exited the game against the Minnesota Twins on Monday in the top of the second inning because of lower back spams, the team announced.

He drew a walk in the second inning, advanced to second on Tommy Edman’s single and was replaced by pinch-runner Alex Call soon after.

Tucker jogged off the field into the dugout, his hand on his right side as he talked to hitting coach Aaron Bates.

Tucker, in his first season with the Dodgers after signing a four-year deal worth $240 million this winter, entered Monday with a .705 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, on pace for his worst offensive year by that measure since his 2018 rookie season with the Houston Astros.

Tucker recently went nine games with a .303 batting average. But then he went hitless in the Dodgers’ two losses to the Baltimore Orioles last weekend.

“If we can get him back to being who he is, then we’ll bet on the results,” manager Dave Roberts said before the game, noting Tucker’s reputation for controlling the strike zone. “It’s not something that we might see tonight. But I think going here forward, that’s something that I think we’re going to see.”

Rushing exits too

Catcher Dalton Rushing was replaced behind the plate by Chuckie Robinson in the bottom of the third inning so the team could check Rushing for a possible concussion.

The Dodgers did not point to a cause for the concern, but Rushing did take a foul tip off his mask on Will Klein’s first pitch of the game.

The Dodgers already were down one catcher. Starter Will Smith has been sidelined for more than two weeks because of a neck injury. He did not travel with the team to Minnesota.

PHOENIX — Corbin Carroll hit a grand slam, Eduardo Rodriguez earned his 100th career win on the mound and the Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Angels 8-1 on Wednesday.

The Diamondbacks won two of three games in the series.

Carroll’s fifth career grand slam landed just over the right field wall, giving Arizona a 5-1 lead in the second inning. It was the two-time All-Star’s 13th homer of the season.

Rodriguez (6-2) scattered six hits and three walks, giving up just one run over his seven innings. The veteran left-hander struck out five, lowered his ERA to 2.45 for the season and became just the ninth Venezuelan-born pitcher to reach 100 wins in the big leagues.

Ketel Marte added a two-run double while rookie Tommy Troy had two hits — including a triple — and two RBIs. Gabriel Moreno contributed a three-hit day and reached base four times.

Angels left-hander Sam Aldegheri (2-2) lasted just three innings and gave up six runs. Shortstop Zach Neto led off the game with a solo homer. It was Neto’s 15th long ball of the season and second in two days.

OKLAHOMA CITY — UCLA, facing elimination in the Women’s College World Series on Friday night, erupted for nine runs in the second inning against Arkansas and rolled to an 11-0 win in five innings that ended the Razorbacks’ first appearance on college softball’s biggest stage.

The Bruins (53-9) got home runs in the inning from Aleena Garcia, Soo-Jin Berry and Megan Grant — her 42nd of the season and the 91st of her career, a program record. Kaniya Bragg homered to right field in the top of the fifth to make it 11-0.

The Razorbacks (47-13) were limited to three hits in five innings by UCLA starter Taylor Tinsley.

UCLA will play another elimination game at 4 p.m. PT Sunday when the Bruins face either Texas Tech, the defending national runner-up, or Tennessee.

Arkansas starter Payton Burnham didn’t last long against UCLA’s powerful lineup.

Garcia homered to lead off the second. Burnham hit Bragg with a pitch, Alexis Ramirez singled, and Berry launched a homer to left field to make it 4-0.

Saylor Timmerman replaced Burnham and walked Jolyna Lamar and Rylee Slimp before Grant crushed a 260-foot no-doubter that hit a metal fence beyond the wall in left-center field.