Although the Dodgers showed a bit of spark and promise on Opening Day, there wasn’t really much to write home about in the next two games, as the Rockies took 2022’s opening series two games to one on Sunday.
The series defeat marked the first time the Dodgers lost a series to the Rockies in Denver since 2018.
The pitching for Los Angeles was decent over the first two games, but a flat Julio Urias on Sunday, coupled with some poor team defense, were the main culprits in a 9-4 loss.
Urias ended up completing just two full innings on 57 pitches, facing a whopping 16 batters in that time. He didn’t strike out any batters, and his four-seam sat right around 91 MPH after averaging just above 94 MPH last season.
The 25-year-old lefty surrendered six runs on six hits and two walks, although three of those runs were unearned.
Another startling stat for Sunday’s game — something we seemingly talked about all winter — was that the Dodgers left 17 runners stranded on base. The team went 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position in Sunday’s loss. For the series, the team was 6-for-23 with RISP.
Over the entire weekend, Los Angeles hit .238/.283/.295 (25-for-105), translating to a highly disappointing .578 OPS. Obviously, it’s only the first series of the season, but these weren’t numbers we expected to see, especially in a hitter-friendly park like Coors, coupled with the addition of the designated hitter.
Sunday’s score could have been much worse if Kris Bryant would have handled Freddie Freeman’s flyball to left field that ended up scoring three runs and momentarily making the game close in the fourth inning.
As far as the hot bats went for the series, Chris Taylor led the way for Los Angeles with four hits, including two doubles. Those four hits came over two games, though, as Taylor took a seat on Saturday to open the door for Edwin Rios to DH.
Gavin Lux was on board five times over the weekend with three singles and two walks. Justin Turner, Mookie Betts and Trea Turner added three hits each for the Dodgers.
After going 0-for-8 in his first two games, Cody Bellinger had two hits on Sunday — a squibber to the left side of the infield against the shift and a solid knock to right field in the fourth.
Bryant and C.J. Cron led the way for the Rockies over the weekend with four hits apiece. Cron, Connor Joe and Elias Diaz all went deep for the Rockies in the series, while Austin Barnes was the only player to go yard for Los Angeles.
After a day off on Monday, the Dodgers land in Minnesota for a quick two-game set against the Twins before returning home to face the Reds for four games at Dodger Stadium.