Wild pitches were prevalent in Sunday’s three-game series finale, and while it appeared to doom Brandon McCarthy and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Colorado Rockies were ultimately done in by the lack of command.
For as well as McCarthy has pitched, his performance Sunday mirrored that of last season when he battled a case of the yips. McCarthy did manage to complete a 1-2-3 first inning on an efficient 13 pitches before trouble set in.
He walked Mark Reynolds to start the second inning, then threw multiple wild pitches that allowed Reynolds to advance to third base. After Raimel Tapia walked, McCarthy’s third wild pitch of the inning allowed Reynolds to score.
Tapia scored on Yasmani Grandal’s throwing error to second base on a stolen base attempt, and Tony Wolters drove in another run with a single before McCarthy could get out of the inning.
McCarthy’s command was improved in the third but the Dodgers defense was not. What should have been a double play instead left two on with nobody out.
Reynolds’ RBI base hit and a force out extended the Rockies’ lead to 3-0. While McCarthy only went three innings, he somehow outlasted Colorado southpaw Tyler Anderson.
He walked Chris Taylor with one out in the bottom of the third and followed that by allowing a two-run home run to Kiké Hernandez. Anderson’s troubles continued as Justin Turner doubled, and Cody Bellinger connected for a two-run homer.
Bellinger’s 23 home runs are the most by a Dodgers player in the first half of a season since Shawn Green had 26 in 2002.
Anderson ran the count to 2-2 against Logan Forsythe but was removed after being checked on by Rockies manager Bud Black and a trainer. Jordan Lyles pitched into the fourth inning and was removed after issuing consecutive walks that loaded the bases.
Scott Oberg preserved the Rockies’ 5-4 lead by retiring Bellinger to end the inning. Turner’s base hit and Forsythe’s double put the tying runs in scoring position with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and knocked Jake McGee out of the game.
Adam Ottavino exacerbated the issue by walking Austin Barnes to load the bases. Two wild pitches by Ottavino led to three runs scoring, and the Dodgers taking an improbable 7-6 lead. Barnes’ aggressive secondary lead allowed him to score from second base when Wolters had trouble locating the ball.
Joc Pederson led off the bottom of the eighth with a double, advanced on a sacrifice fly, then scored on Ottavino’s third wild pitch of the game. His command issues didn’t end there, as after Chris Taylor stole third base, Ottavino uncorked yet another wild pitch.
Once Ottavino managed to find the zone, it resulted in Bellinger’s second-two run homer on the afternoon. It marked Bellinger’s sixth multi-home run game.
Kenley Jansen even got in on the act, driving a two-out RBI double to center field. The extra-base hit and RBI were both career firsts. On the mound, Jansen recorded a five-out save in the regular season for the first time since April 13, 2016.
The Dodgers extended their winning streak to 10 games with an 12-6 victory. Their come-from-behind effort was the 21st this season, and the series sweep was the Dodgers’ eighth this season.
