​Mookie Betts’ first hit of this series against the Rockies could hardly have arrived at a more perfect moment. With the crack of his bat, Tommy Edman sprinted home from third, giving the Dodgers the lead, and as Betts reached first, he gestured toward Freddie Freeman, whose single had placed Edman in scoring position. It took a team-wide effort to steady a game that had started with Roki Sasaki showing early signs of vulnerability, and Betts, who had little to show prior to his pivotal hit, used the moment to acknowledge the collective contribution fueling the Dodgers’ 4-3 rubber-match victory over Colorado (38-56).
The Dodgers carried a three-run cushion into the game after a first-inning surge fueled by a wild pitch and Kyle Tucker’s two-run, line-drive single to left. Sasaki seemed positioned for success, yet the advantage slipped away just as quickly as it appeared. In the second inning, he left a fastball over the plate, and third baseman Kyle Karros launched a drive over the left-center wall. A slider he delivered to second baseman Edouard Julien two batters later also caught too much of the plate, and Julien dashed around the bases for another homer. In the third, a sacrifice fly by Mickey Moniak tied the game at 3-3.
Sasaki’s season has been stubbornly inconsistent since his last victory on May 23, as he works to regain the triple-digit velocity that has eluded him of late. Against the Rockies, his fastball peaked at 99.1 mph before gradually easing to 98, and he racked up five strikeouts over six innings before manager Dave Roberts pulled him for Jack Dreyer. The three earned runs, however, underscored the ongoing challenge. Roberts also considered the possibility that Sasaki had been tipping his pitches—perhaps since his time in Japan—and the pitcher has been addressing that issue after a three-inning, six-run start last week. Even if he has achieved a complete self-correction, his control issues persist; in the third, he walked the tying runner, Brett Sullivan.
The Dodgers’ struggles were compounded by a misstep in the first inning when Alex Call wasted two Dodgers challenges during his at-bat after the team had already grabbed the lead. It would have been understandable if Call had driven in the runners on first and second, but instead he ended the inning with a strikeout, leaving both runners stranded.
After the three-run burst in the first, Los Angeles (61-33) remained hitless until Max Muncy rolled a double down the right-field line in the sixth, a sign that the rally hadn’t fully materialized at the plate. As the game progressed, Colorado’s offensive opportunities appeared to rise. The Rockies entered the eighth and ninth innings with the league’s highest batting average (.297) in those late frames, while the Dodgers sat at fourth with a .268 mark. On the mound, Dodgers relievers operated within a similar framework, posting a 3.83 ERA—solid, but not among the league’s elite.
In the end, Betts’ timely first hit of the series, coupled with Edman’s courtesy run and Freeman’s earlier hit that kept the pressure on, helped the Dodgers snap a skid and secure a 4-3 win in the finale against the Rockies. It was a reminder that, even when a pitcher is fighting to reclaim velocity and consistency, a cohesive lineup can still prevail when everyone contributes in key moments.