tyler glasnow

SAN FRANCISCO — The Dodgers tout Yoshinobu Yamamoto as a Cy Young award contender, and every one of his starts has been a quality start, including the one he made here Tuesday.

The Dodgers talk up Shohei Ohtani as a Cy Young award contender, and Ohtani has given up one run all season. He pitched six shutout innings here Wednesday.

But the pitcher who delivered the best start of this series against the San Francisco Giants, and the one that stood tall between the Giants and what would have been a humiliating sweep, was Tyler Glasnow.

That was one storyline from an eventful afternoon at the ballpark and, for the Dodgers, a sorely needed 3-0 victory on a day they found themselves a new cleanup hitter, a new closer — and on a day a Giants player blasted a Dodgers player for making a “dirty” play.

Nothing like a little bad blood to breathe a little life into a languishing rivalry.

The cleanup hitter: Kyle Tucker, dropped from second to fourth in the lineup after his average had fallen to .233, ignited a two-run rally in the fourth inning with a double and delivered his first two-hit game in 17 days.

The closer: Tanner Scott, just as the Dodgers planned last year. After Glasnow pitched eight shutout innings and gave up one hit, Scott got the first save situation since the Dodgers lost closer Edwin Díaz to elbow surgery. Scott has a 0.84 ERA this season, including the perfect ninth inning he worked Thursday for the first of what might be quite a few saves this season.

The Dodgers (17-8), remember, signed him for $72 million as their closer last season, but he lost his job and did not pitch in the playoffs.

“It was terrible,” he said. “But I washed it away.”

The “dirty” play was the second of two acts in a sixth-inning drama.

On Tuesday, cameras caught Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing muttering something after looking back at the Giants’ Jung Hoo Lee, who was in discomfort after an awkward slide at home plate. Rushing had tagged out Lee and was headed back to the dugout when he turned back to see Lee on the ground, then kept going.

Rushing did not play Wednesday. On Thursday, in his third plate appearance, Rushing was hit by a pitch from San Francisco starter Logan Webb.

Webb dodged a question about whether the pitch was a response to the thing that happened with Rushing and Lee.

“What thing with Jung Hoo?” Webb said. He simply described the pitch as “fastball, inside.”

Said Rushing: “I like getting on base. Whatever works. If it was intentional, I’ll take it. I’ll take what I deserve. I’ve cleared the air with all of that. I’ve made sure Jung Hoo is good and healthy.”

When the following batter, Hyeseong Kim, grounded to second baseman Luis Arraez, Rushing threw up his hands and slid away from the base to try and prevent shortstop Willy Adames from completing the double play.

The second-base umpire pointed at Rushing and awarded the Giants with the double play. The first-base umpire ruled the Giants had completed the double play anyway, since Adames’ throw beat Kim to first base.

“For me, that’s not good baseball,” Arraez said. “It’s dirty.”

Rushing said the slide was not his response to getting hit.

“I was taught that in college,” he said. “That’s kind of the way you go in, especially when you have a speedster like that with Hyeseong behind me. You’re not going four or five feet outside the bag. You stay within the body length and try to break up a double play. Nothing against any of those guys right there.”

Did Dodgers manager Dave Roberts believe Webb’s pitch was intentional?

“It probably was,” Roberts said. “For me, he [Rushing] said what he said. I don’t think he meant it too personally. But they see it, social media catches it, Webb is an old-school guy. He’s protecting his teammates. I’ve got no problem with it.”

Roberts said he saw nothing wrong with Rushing’s slide.

“I like that too,” Roberts said. “That’s baseball. They’re going to hit you. You know, Webb has got really good command. I get it. They’ll deny it. I like the way he went in hard. No problem. That’s nothing against Adames, but he went in hard and they turned a double play. That’s good baseball — good, hard-nosed baseball.”

And winning baseball, for a happy flight after a mediocre trip. The Dodgers concluded a 3-4 trip to Colorado and San Francisco, the teams projected to finish in the bottom two spots in the National League West. Up next: the Chicago Cubs, winners of nine consecutive games.

Glasnow faced one batter over the minimum over his eight innings. The one hit he allowed was a single. He struck out nine. His ERA is 2.45, with Yamamoto at 2.48.

Roberts said the combination of Glasnow’s evolving maturity — his ability to respond to setbacks and challenges — makes him a legitimate Cy Young candidate.

“Now, for me, he’s going to be in that conversation,” Roberts said. “And I think for me, that was the missing piece. You know you’re not going to feel great every outing. There’s going to be stress, there’s going to be things that you can’t control, and you got to be able to manage it. And I think now he’s equipped mentally to do that.”

There is one thing Glasnow has yet to accomplish. The Dodgers decided a season-high 105 pitches from an oft-injured pitcher was enough this early in the year.

However, this could have been his big chance: In 133 major league starts and 130 minor league starts, he never has pitched a complete game.

“That,” Glasnow said, “would be sick.”

DENVER — The hottest team in baseball, the coldest game in franchise history.

And a California kid on the mound, battling the inclement elements, this time beating the 35-degree chill.

Last April, a deluge in Philadelphia derailed the Dodgers and Tyler Glasnow in a frustrating defeat against the Phillies.

On Friday, in his first game at Coors Field, the Dodgers’ towering right-hander proved his manager Dave Roberts right: “He’s grown exponentially. I don’t see that these conditions are going to affect him today.”

Dodger Max Muncy follows the flight of his solo home run off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Tomoyuki Sugano Friday in Denver.

(David Zalubowski/AP)

Indeed not. The former Newhall Hart High standout got the better of the weather and the Colorado Rockies. And his Dodgers teammates put runs on the board like they were logs in the fireplace, scoring at least one run every inning until the sixth inning en route to a breezy 7-1 victory.

Sparked by Max Muncy’s leadoff home runs in the second and fifth innings, the hot hitters up and down the Dodgers’ lineup sapped the suspense from the first of a four-game wraparound series.

Most of the crowd of 28,783 loved to see it. Thousands of dutifully bundled Dodgers supporters chanted and cheered as their boys in blue notched their 15th victory in 19 games, maintaining momentum in the first game of a 13-consecutive-game stretch.

Colorado right-hander Tomoyuki Sugano took the loss after leaving the game after the fourth inning with the Rockies trailing 5-0, having given up five runs on nine hits and thrown 91 pitches (just 51 of them for strikes).

As the grounds crew works to clear snow while Dodgers third baseman Santiago Espinal tosses a snowball at a coach before the team played the Rockies Friday in Denver.

(David Zalubowski / Associated Press)

Conversely, Glasnow (2-0) got the win, going seven innings and yielding just one run and two hits, striking out seven and walking two on 92 pitches. The Rockies (7-13) scored only in the fourth inning, when Troy Johnston’s groundout pushed across Mickey Moniak to make it 5-1.

The Dodgers’ first run came on much more quickly, when Will Smith’s one-out sacrifice fly brought home Shohei Ohtani, who’d led off the game with a double — he went two for three off Sugano on Friday, making the Dodgers’ superstar six for seven all time against his countryman.

Smith’s first RBI was his ninth this season, in his 35th game at the famously hitter-friendly park, though he still had another in him.

Muncy’s 434-foot home run in the second made it 2-0 and his double down the line in the third drove in Smith, who’d reached on a broken-bat single that sent Roberts scurrying in the dugout. That gave the Dodgers their third run before Andy Pages’ sacrifice brought home Freddie Freeman to make it 4-0.

The Dodgers pushed it to 5-0 in the fourth inning when Smith singled to left to score Kyle Tucker, who’d doubled off the center field wall.

And then Muncy led off the fifth with his second solo shot, giving him his 21st career multi-homer game, and his fourth at Coors Field. After Alex Freeland hit a sacrifice fly to left to bring home Pages, the Dodgers led 7-1.

Hyeseong Kim was one of three Dodgers who didn’t score, but the speedy South Korean reached on a single and a walk and twice stole second.

For all the contributors keeping warm up and down the Dodgers’ lineup, the members of the Rockies’ ground crew were the real heroes of Friday’s game. They plowed the outfield grass and shoveled away the couple inches of snow that piled up between 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to prepare a playable field by gametime at 6:40 p.m.

The Dodgers’ rotation order is set for the first homestand of the season.

To round out the series against the Arizona Diamondbacks, after Yoshinobu Yamamoto takes the mound Thursday on opening day, he’ll be followed by Emmet Sheehan and Tyler Glasnow. Roki Sasaki is penciled in for Monday against the Cleveland Guardians, followed by Shohei Ohtani on March 31.

Off days on Sunday and April 2 make it possible for the Dodgers to give all their pitchers at least five days’ rest between their first and second starts without needing a sixth starter.

Left-hander Justin Wrobleski is pegged to be that additional starter when the schedule features less frequent days off. In the meantime, he’ll be available to throw multiple innings out of the bullpen.

After starting the season for the Dodgers in Tokyo last year, Yamamoto is looking forward to opening day at Dodger Stadium.

“It’s going to be a different game, and with a different atmosphere,” Yamamoto said through an interpreter. “And then we’re coming off the championship year, then this is the first time I’ll be pitching in front of the Dodgers fans [since then].”

Yamamoto, who was on the mound for the final out of the 2025 season, hasn’t pitched at Dodger Stadium since Game 3 of the National League Division Series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Sheehan claimed a regular spot in the rotation after returning last June from Tommy John surgery rehab. He had a 2.82 earned-run average through 15 appearances last season.

“I was maybe throwing bullpens right now a year ago,” Sheehan said after his last spring start. “So it’s definitely nice. That’s the main thing, to have my health. Grateful for that every time.”

Sheehan wrapped up Cactus League play with a 5.91 ERA in three starts, but he was encouraged by the progress he made in syncing up his delivery.

Glasnow capped his strong spring with five innings of one-run baseball against the Angels on Sunday.

“When everything’s lined up and feeling good … I think a lot of the other stuff follows,” Glasnow said. “And I was just able to go out and be myself.”

He recorded 11 strikeouts against the Angels, leaning on his curveball as his putaway pitch. It generated a 72% whiff rate, according to Statcast.

“Having my curveball feel so good, I kind of just leaned on it,” Glasnow said. “I’m sure things will change in-season, game to game. But tonight, it was a pretty obvious game plan for me.”