Dodgers outlast Rockies in slugfest at Coors

Friday was a bit of a throwback game at Coors Field, with runs aplenty and traffic on the bases all night. Amid the carnage the Dodgers came out on top, prevailing 11-8 over the Rockies on Friday night in Denver.

Chris Taylor tripled to lead off the game and scored, then hit a three-run home run in the sixth inning off Brooks Pounders to give the Dodgers the lead on the first day of June after hitting just one three-run home run as a team in their previous 41 games. Taylor’s four RBI are a season high.

Yasiel Puig had his first four-hit game in nearly three years, including a double and a two-run home run, the latter for insurance in the ninth inning. Puig matched his career best with those four hits, his first such game since June 10, 2015.

Matt Kemp added a solo shot in the first inning, his eighth of the season, and his 10th extra-base hit in his last 15 games.

Justin Turner doubled, singled and walked. There were 11 extra-base hits in this game, seven hit by the Dodgers.

The debut

Dennis Santana was shaky early, allowing a triple, double and single, plus a hit by pitch among his first five batters faced, plating three runs. Entering from the bullpen with one out in the second, Santana entered a game in the middle of an inning since July 24, 2014 in the Dominican Summer League.

This was after Scott Alexander batted in the top of the second inning, then faced just one batter in the bottom of the inning. Alexander retired four of his six batters faced in his “start,” allowing a run on an RBI triple in the first inning by Carlos Gonzalez.

Santana relatively settled down after that but still got tagged for runs in the fourth and fifth innings, each one on a two-out RBI single. The latter came after a wild pitch advanced Nolan Arenado into scoring position.

The end results in this jumbled mess of a game was five runs allowed on six hits in 3⅔ innings for Santana, with four strikeouts and a walk. And a win, in his major league debut.

At the plate

A pair of infield hits followed a line drive single to load the bases in the top of the fourth, then Santana jumped on the first major league pitch he ever saw, hitting a double that one-hopped the left field wall, driving in two to tie the game at 4-4.

It is the first extra-base hit by a Dodgers pitcher in his first major league plate appearance since Doug Rau on Sept. 2, 1972 in St. Louis.

Extra effort

After Kenley Jansen recorded 12 saves longer than one inning in 2017, he got his first extended save of 2018, though it wasn’t easy. Jansen entered with a two-run lead in the eighth and got two more runs of support in the ninth, but still saw the Rockies bring the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the inning.

Jansen allowed four to reach base, one of them scoring, but eventually got out of it. He has converted his last 11 save opportunities.

Up next

The Dodgers will send Walker Buehler to the mound on Saturday, a 4:15 p.m. PT start exclusively televised by Fox, with German Marquez pitching for the Rockies.

Friday particulars

Home runs: Matt Kemp (8), Chris Taylor (8), Yasiel Puig (6); Nolan Arenado (12)

WP - Dennis Santana (1-0): 3⅔ IP, 6 hits, 5 runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts

LP - Brooks Pounders (0-1): 0 IP, 3 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk

Sv - Kenley Jansen (13): 1⅓ IP, 3 hits, 1 run, 1 walk