Dodgers ride Glasnow’s dominance and a late surge to stay atop NL West
No hits on the board and yet the Rockies led early. That was the strange, stubborn shape of Monday night at Dodger Stadium, where the Los Angeles Dodgers turned a grind of a game into a 3-1 win that felt bigger than the score. Tyler Glasnow, fresh off injury concerns, overpowered Colorado for seven no-hit innings with 11 strikeouts, and the bullpen carried the bid into the ninth before the lone blemish landed for a double.
Coming in, the matchup looked lopsided on paper. The Dodgers were 79-64 and nursing a one-game edge over the Padres. The Rockies, at 40-103 and 17-52 away from Coors, had the league’s worst record and the league’s worst pitching numbers. Their offense had been stuck in mud, too, averaging 3.79 runs per game and sitting 29th in MLB. All that context mattered, but it didn’t make the early innings any easier for LA.
Glasnow’s status was the pregame storyline. He’d been scratched from a previous start with discomfort, then cleared to go, bringing a 29% strikeout rate over 68⅔ innings into a matchup with a Colorado lineup that had been whiffing in roughly a quarter of its trips the last two weeks. The right-hander looked sharp from pitch one, working up in the zone with the four-seam and ripping off breaking balls that dove under bats. He kept his delivery under control and pounded the zone; the Rockies never really synced his timing.
Still, Colorado nicked the Dodgers first. In the second, Jordan Beck drew a walk and moved up before Kyle Farmer did his job with a sacrifice fly to center. No hits, one run, and a reminder that baseball doesn’t always follow the scouting report.
For the Rockies, rookie righty Chase Dollander — who came in 2-12 with a 6.77 ERA, an 18.2% strikeout rate, and an 11.1% walk rate — settled in better than expected. He mixed his fastball and slider enough to keep LA quiet, and he kept the ball in front of his defenders. The Dodgers threatened but stranded runners, caught between chasing power and trying to manufacture a run. Dollander’s recent outing in San Francisco (six runs in five innings, two homers) told one story; this night told another. He kept it 1-0 through five and handed things to the bullpen.
The game swung in the sixth. Juan Mejia took over, and Freddie Freeman quickly leveled the score with a scorched RBI double into the right-center gap. That hit relieved an offense that had pressed for half the night and gave the crowd a jolt. Colorado limited the damage and escaped the inning tied, which mattered because Glasnow was busy making their margin for error razor-thin.
Glasnow’s line told part of the story: seven innings, 105 pitches, 11 strikeouts, two walks, and no hits allowed. The rest lived in the swings he erased. Colorado’s right-handed bats couldn’t square the high fastball and chased breaking balls that started in the zone and fell under barrels late. When hitters tried to shorten up, they rolled over on pitches on the edges. When they geared up, the heater beat them upstairs.
The decisive rally came in the seventh with two outs, the kind of inning that separates contenders. Andy Pages took a pitch off the body to reach, Shohei Ohtani banged a two-out double that split the gap, and Mookie Betts followed with a clean, center-cut swing for a two-run single to center. In one sequence, 1-1 turned into 3-1, and the night finally matched the run of play.
Blake Treinen glided through a perfect eighth, keeping the no-hitter intact and handing the ball to Tanner Scott for the ninth. The drama peaked right away: Ryan Ritter cracked a double for Colorado’s first and only hit, snapping the no-hit bid. Scott locked back in, retired the next three, and sealed the win without another scare.
So the box score reads like this: the Dodgers won the contact battle by disallowing contact at all. LA’s staff allowed one run on one hit, and the defense handled the rest. The Rockies got on the board via a walk and a sac fly, and that was it. For a team that’s struggled to generate offense on the road, this was more of the same.
Why it mattered, and what’s next for both clubs
Standings-wise, this was clean and critical. The Dodgers held their one-game lead over San Diego and pushed their record to 80-64. They also kept rolling at home against Colorado, now 5-0 in their last five at Dodger Stadium. These are the games you have to bank when the calendar tightens and every slip can swing a division.
For Glasnow, the outing matters beyond the W. After recent discomfort, he handled a full workload and held his stuff deep into the game. The velocity held, the breaking ball bit late, and his fastball command was good enough to set everything up. Expect the Dodgers to watch his recovery closely after 105 pitches, but this was the exact response they needed from a top-end arm.
The bullpen blueprint made sense, too. Treinen in the eighth has become a trust move for Dave Roberts in leverage spots — clean mechanics, late movement, and weak contact. Scott in the ninth has the swing-and-miss to finish games, and he did, even after the heart-in-throat moment with Ritter’s double. The roles felt defined, which is what you want in September.
Offensively, this was a night where the middle of the order did the lifting. Freeman’s RBI double steadied the dugout. Ohtani’s late two-bagger and Betts’s two-run poke turned control into breathing room. Pages getting on base by any means — even a painful one — kept the inning alive. The top-end talent showed up when it mattered, and that’s the template in tight games against teams you’re supposed to beat.
From Colorado’s side, there’s a silver lining inside the frustration. Dollander held a lineup full of star hitters down through five and showed better feel than his season line suggests. He didn’t overwhelm, but he competed, and that’s a step the Rockies badly need from their young arms. The bullpen’s margin for error was thin, and one crack — the Freeman double, then the two-out burst in the seventh — was enough to tilt it.
The Rockies’ offense is the ongoing puzzle. One run, one hit, and a lot of empty swings won’t travel, especially against high-velocity, high-spin pitching. Beck’s patience to draw a walk and Farmer’s situational swing were quality at-bats. Ritter breaking up the no-hitter in the ninth was a small win on a tough night. But production with runners on base and more damage early in counts have to be next.
Notable numbers tell the shape of it:
- Glasnow: 7 IP, 0 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 11 K, 105 pitches.
- Dodgers pitchers: 1 hit allowed, 14 strikeouts combined.
- Colorado road slide: now 17-53 away from Coors.
- LA’s run of results vs. Colorado at home: 5 straight wins.
Look at the broader NL West picture, and this win keeps the heat on San Diego. There’s not much runway left, and the Dodgers still have to handle a mix of contenders and spoilers down the stretch. Nights like this — where the ace is an ace, the bullpen holds, and the stars cash in late — are the blueprint.
For Colorado, it’s about development and keeping games closer for longer. Dollander’s command tightening up, Ritter and Beck grabbing reps, and the bullpen finding stable options are the bridge to whatever comes next. The standings are what they are, but the habits built in September tend to show up early the next year.
On a night when the script looked straightforward but played out with a twist, the Dodgers did what a first-place team should: lean on elite pitching, wait for the big swing, and close the door.
