DENVER – The thin air at Coors Field has a way of reviving a lineup, and on Monday night it breathed life back into the Dodgers.
After dropping two straight, the Dodgers didn’t just salvage a split, they made a statement. A 12-3 rout of the Colorado Rockies was fueled by thunder at the plate and another steady step forward from a young arm that’s making it harder to ignore him.
It started, as it so often does in Denver, with Max Muncy turning a mistake into a souvenir. His second-inning blast, 419 feet, set the tone and hinted at what kind of night it would be. By the time he was done, Muncy had four hits and two more home runs, giving him eight on the season, all solo shots, and an absurd 10 hits in this series alone.
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Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Max Muncy (13) rounds the bases on a solo home run in the second inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.
And Muncy didn’t stay alone for long.
Miguel Rojas followed him with a home run of his own, part of a storybook night that included his 999th and 1,000th career hits, both coming in the same ballpark, and in the same game. His fourth-inning single to reach the milestone helped spark another rally, one that grew when a balk from Jose Quintana pushed a run across and underscored how quickly things were unraveling for Colorado.
Meanwhile, Shohei Ohtani just kept quietly building history. His third-inning single extended his on-base streak to 52 games, putting him within one of Shawn Green for second place in Dodgers history.
The offense kept layering on. A bases-loaded walk from Alex Call. Smart baserunning from Andy Pages. Productive situational hitting that turned innings into crooked numbers. By the late innings, the game had shifted from competitive to emphatic.
Then came the exclamation point from Dalton Rushing.
Batting ninth but swinging like a cleanup hitter, Rushing launched two home runs, giving him seven in just 27 at-bats this season. The numbers are almost cartoonish: a .444 average, a 1.760 OPS, and the kind of impact that forces a manager’s hand. For a player who entered the year fighting for at-bats as a backup catcher and occasional first baseman, the conversation is changing quickly.
This is no longer about development, it’s about deployment.
Lost in the offensive fireworks, but no less important, was Justin Wrobleski continuing to carve out a role that’s starting to look permanent.
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Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Justin Wrobleski (70) pitches in the first inning against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field.
For the second straight start, Wrobleski pushed into the seventh inning, territory he hadn’t reached before last week. He scattered eight hits but allowed just one run, didn’t walk a batter, and worked efficiently through 97 pitches. It wasn’t overpowering, but it was controlled, composed, and exactly what this rotation needed.
That’s now back-to-back outings where Wrobleski hasn’t just filled innings, he’s owned them.
And on a night when the Dodgers needed a response, they got it from everywhere: Muncy’s power surge, Rushing’s breakout, Rojas’ milestone, Ohtani’s consistency, and Wrobleski’s emergence.
At Coors Field, things can snowball quickly, just like it did last Friday.