The Dodgers traded their feast-or-famine offense for a Happy Medium Meal on Tuesday night, combining a solid-but-not-spectacular offense with some stout pitching from Julio Urías for a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies before a sellout crowd of 52,290 in Chavez Ravine.
A lineup that produced 31 runs on 33 hits in their three wins and scored two runs on nine hits and went 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position in two losses managed just seven hits Tuesday night, though three were home runs by Will Smith, Jason Heyward and Max Muncy.
But the Dodgers didn't need to pummel the Rockies to make a winner out of Urías, who gave up five hits, struck out six and walked none in six shutout innings and escaped a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the third.
Urías, sporting a new 86 mph cut-fastball that he broke out in last week's season-opening win over Arizona, extended his scoreless innings streak to 10.
He threw 87 pitches, 60 for strikes, induced nine swinging strikes and notched two of his whiffs with his cutter. Urias threw his 92 mph four-seam fastball 40 times, his 79-mph slurve 20 times, his 86 mph change-up 16 times and his cutter 11 times.
The Dodgers survived a scary moment in the top of the seventh when Mookie Betts, playing second base in place of the injured Miguel Vargas, ranged into shallow right field for an Alan Trejo popup.
Betts made an over-the-shoulder catch to end the inning but collided with — and flipped over — right fielder Jason Heyward. Betts was slow to get up but eventually jogged off the field and remained in the game. He doubled to lead off the eighth and scored on Smith's double for a 5-0 lead.
There was another scare in the ninth when the Rockies scored on doubles by Kris Bryant and Elehuris Montero off Phil Bickford to cut the deficit to 5-1 and Ryan McMahon walked.
Manager Dave Roberts summoned right-hander Evan Phillips, who hit Elias Díaz with a pitch to load the bases. But Phillips got pinch-hitter Mike Moustakas to hit a sacrifice fly to left and pinch-hitter Charlie Blackmon to ground out to first, ending the game.
Tuesday's game began much the way Monday's ended, with Smith, the Dodgers catcher, crushing a two-run homer to left-center field off Rockies ace German Marquez for a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first.
Smith capped a 13-hit barrage in Monday night's 13-4 victory with a two-run homer to left in the bottom of the eighth. He followed Betts' leadoff single in the first inning Tuesday by driving an elevated 88 mph slider 382 feet into the left-field pavilion for his third homer in six games.
The Rockies loaded the bases with no outs in the third when Ezequiel Tovar and Jurickson Profar singled to right and Yonathan Daza beat out a bunt single to Muncy, who hesitated before fielding the ball at third base, thinking Urías would make the play, and threw late to first.
But Urías slammed the door, striking out Bryant looking at an 82-mph slurve and getting C.J. Cron to ground sharply to Muncy, who threw to Betts at second to start an inning-ending double play.
The Dodgers extended their lead to 4-0 on solo home runs by Heyward in the third inning and Muncy in the fourth.
Heyward, the 33-year-old veteran who was released by the Chicago Cubs after hitting .204 with a .556 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, one homer and 10 RBIs in 48 games last season, belted his second homer in as many nights, a 112.7 mph laser to right field that was harder than any ball the Dodgers hit last season.
Muncy, who hit .063 (1 for 16) with nine strikeouts in his first four games, including a brutal five-strikeout game in last Thursday's season-opener against Arizona, led off the fourth with a towering 381-foot drive into the right-field seats for his first homer of the season.
The Dodgers played without their starting middle-infield combination of shortstop Miguel Rojas, who has a minor left-groin injury, and second baseman Vargas, who has a sore right thumb, but both could return Thursday.
Rojas tweaked his groin while trying to turn an unassisted double play in the ninth inning against Arizona on Sunday. Vargas was hit on the inside of his right thumb by a fastball in the seventh Monday night, but the Dodgers did not deem the injury serious enough to order an MRI test.
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