Emmet Sheehan strikes out career-high 10 as Dodgers trounce Rockies

The Dodgers followed the script of their previous win, once again relying on strong pitching by a rookie and outstanding offense to beat the Rockies in Coors Field, 8-2 on Wednesday night.

Making his second start at Coors Field in his rookie season, Emmet Sheehan kicked things up a notch, as the right-hander was superb against the Rox.

Sheehan had established a new career-high with his nine-strikeout effort against the Giants in his last outing, and he did so again, this time around, striking out 10 across six innings of work.

Back in late June, Sheehan had already done a pretty nice job when he came to Coors for only his third appearance in the bigs. The rookie right-hander held Colorado to three runs across five innings with as many strikeouts, earning his second big-league win.

This time around, Sheehan was even more dominant, once again setting up a win, with the aforementioned 10 punchouts across six frames, with all the damage done against him on a pair of solo shots.

The solo homers allowed by Sheehan were just that and thus had their damage mitigated by the lack of baserunners, as the righty didn’t hand out any free passes.

The dominance of the Dodgers starting pitching in Coors Field has been something else. Sheehan, Bobby Miller, and Ryan Pepiot, the latter who was the bulk guy in one of the three games, all combined for 19 innings of work with 28 strikeouts and a single walk.

Late two-out rally makes it a blowout

Each team scored a run in the third, and then the Dodgers took over with a 4-1 lead in the fifth. From that point on, LA just managed that lead until a late rally made it a blowout.

The Rockies retired the first two in the top of the eighth, trailing by a couple, and then the following three reached base ahead of Freddie Freeman, who made it an 8-2 game with a three-run shot.

With those three RBI, Freeman became the third Dodger with 100+ RBI in 2023, joining Mookie Betts and Max Muncy. This is the first time a Dodger team has done that since 1955, a year in which they won it all.

Wednesday particulars

Home runs: James Outman (23), Freddie Freeman (28); Sean Bouchard (1), Brendan Rodgers (3)

WP — Emmet Sheehan (4-1): 6 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 10 strikeouts

LP — Noah Davis (0-4): 4⅓ IP, 7 hits, 4 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts

Up next

The Dodgers wrap up their next-to-last series of the season on Thursday night (5:40 p.m., SportsNet LA),. It will be the southpaw Ryan Yarbrough facing off versus the right-hander Chris Flexen.