​Since the Los Angeles Dodgers picked up left-hander Eric Lauer from the Toronto Blue Jays after they designated him for assignment in early May, the 31-year-old has proven to be the Dodgers’ most surprising—and most dependable—addition in recent memory. Though he left the game with a 6-3 lead in the sixth, the Colorado Rockies clawed back to push this contest into extra innings. After a back-and-forth affair between the two clubs, Dalton Rushing delivered the walk-off winner by driving a ball up the middle in the 11th inning, giving Los Angeles an 8-7 victory.
For Lauer, it was his fourth quality start in a Dodgers uniform, and the team is undefeated in the games he has started, posting a 7-0 record in those appearances. He has carried a 3.12 ERA across his last 40.1 innings pitched and has gone 3-0 in his most recent six starts. On July 6, 2026, in Los Angeles, Lauer took the mound at Dodger Stadium against Colorado, continuing to anchor the staff as the Dodgers’ rotation finds its footing.
While Lauer was holding the fort on the mound, the Dodgers’ offense ignited with an explosive fourth inning against Rockies veteran Kyle Freeland. Earlier, Shohei Ohtani had put the Dodgers in front in the bottom of the third with a two-home run spree. That shot marked not only Ohtani’s 19th homer of the season—the first long ball of July—but also his 299th career home run.
In the fourth, Max Muncy kicked off the surge with an RBI single after back-to-back hits from Kyle Tucker and Teoscar Hernández. Miguel Rojas followed with a sacrifice fly, and Ohtani added two more RBIs with a two-out RBI single, finishing the day 3-for-4 with four RBIs.
The Rockies were quiet at the plate until the ninth inning, when Colorado mounted a rally against Tanner Scott. Kyle Karros opened the inning with an RBI double to trim the deficit to 6-4. Cole Carrigg then ripped a bases-clearing RBI double that could have flipped the game in Colorado’s favor, but a close play at the plate went Dodgers’ way, preserving Los Angeles’ slim lead.
That sequence set the stage for an extra-inning twist—the Dodgers’ first extra-inning affair of the year, snapping a 91-game streak of not playing in extras. Colorado wasted no time in the 10th, scoring after Jake McCarthy grounded out to Freddie Freeman; Freeman’s throw to the plate arrived late, and Rushing’s tag—accompanied by some heated words—sparked a near benches-clearing moment.
The Dodgers answered in the bottom half of the 10th with a Mookie Betts RBI single, tying the game and extending Betts’ on-base streak to 16 games. The late-inning drama culminated in the 11th when Dalton Rushing delivered the decisive hit, sealing an 8-7 victory for Los Angeles.
In essence, Lauer’s arrival has yielded a stabilizing presence for a Dodgers rotation that has leaned on him heavily, while the offense has shown the consistent punch to back him up in key moments. The sequence of long balls and timely knocks, topped off by Rushing’s walk-off, underscored a game that showcased the Dodgers’ balance between pitching resilience and offensive depth. As the season progresses, Los Angeles will hope this combination of solid starting pitching and explosive offense becomes a recurring hallmark of their winning formula.