​Watching Gabriel Hughes pitch for the Colorado Rockies against the Los Angeles Dodgers proved to be worth the wait. In his MLB starting debut, Hughes allowed three runs in the first inning but settled in afterward. The Dodgers ultimately won the game 4-3, scoring the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth. Colorado had opportunities to seize the lead themselves but failed to deliver a decisive hit when it counted.
Back to Hughes: over six innings against a potent Dodgers lineup featuring Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman, and Mookie Betts, he surrendered three earned runs on four hits, walked two, and piled up seven strikeouts. Once Hughes shook off the initial jitters, his live fastball overwhelmed veteran Los Angeles hitters, making sustained contact difficult. A performance like this could push Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer to consider giving Hughes a regular turn in the rotation.
Baseball Savant notes that Hughes leans on his four-seam fastball 65% of the time, with the sweeper as his next-most-used pitch. He’s less reliant on a curveball and changeup, instead letting that four-seamer do most of the heavy lifting. Hughes averages 93.6 mph with the four-seam, while his sweeper sits around 85 mph. Batters facing him are consistently challenged by both top offerings, but the four-seam fastball tends to force more of them to retreat to the dugout.
Brennan Bernardino worked a clean seventh inning, but Antonio Senzatela couldn’t close the gap in the eighth. Senzatela allowed the decisive run on three hits, walked none, and struck out two, suffering his first loss of the season to drop to 8-1. Dodgers starter Roki Sasaki battled but wrestled with trouble in six innings, yielding three earned runs on four hits, one walk, and five strikeouts, with two home runs surrendered.
Enrique Hernandez, the Dodgers’ fourth pitcher of the night, worked a third of an inning in the eighth and earned the victory, improving to 4-0. Tanner Scott finished the ninth, preserving the shutout on the Rockies and earning his 13th save of the season.
Kyle Karros provided a spark for the Dodgers with his eighth homer of the year, a solo shot off Sasaki in the second inning. Edouard Julien joined the party with his third homer, also in the second, again off Sasaki. Mickey Moniak added a sacrifice fly in the third to tie the game at 3-3. That score held until the bottom of the eighth.
Before that pivotal eighth, however, there was a key sequence in the fourth inning. Kyle Karros ripped a double down the third-base line that Muncy couldn’t handle, and TJ Rumfield, who had reached base earlier, advanced to third. With runners at second and third and nobody out, Colorado threatened to seize control of the game.
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