Dodgers win streak vanishes in thin air of Coors Field

One streak still going

Shohei Ohtani reached on an error by the first baseman Johnston in the first inning, and scored on Tucker’s home run. He also reached on catcher’s interference in the eighth. But by not getting on via hit, walk, or hit by pitch, he didn’t technically reach base safely in any of his first four plate appearances on Saturday. A pinch-hit infield single by Will Smith with two outs in the ninth inning gave Ohtani one more chance in the ninth inning, and he obliged with a single. Ohtani’s 50-game on-base streak is tied with Wee Willie Keeler (1900-01) for the third-longest streak in modern Dodgers history. It’s already the longest MLB streak by a Japanese player, and the longest on-base streak by *any* MLB player since Shin-Soo Choo reached in 52 straight games for the Texas Rangers in 2018.

Staying hot

Dalton Rushing is off to an incredible start to his second major league season, and his solo shot in the second inning gave him already more home runs this year (five) in his first 19 plate appearances than he had all of last season (four) in 155 plate appearances. It’s still absurdly early in the season, and while Will Smith has two home runs thus far he’s hit at least 15 home runs in all six of his non-shortened major league campaigns. The last time the Dodgers had two catchers with double-digit home runs was way back in 1979, when Joe Ferguson hit 20 (14 as catcher) and Steve Yeager hit 13.

Of note

Second baseman Alex Freeland was seen flexing his left hand after catching a Will Klein fastball from close range on a pickoff throw in the sixth inning. Freeland was pinch-hit for in the seventh with Alex Call, though it might have been simply a matchup preference against the lefty Bernardino. On the SportsNet LA broadcast, Kirsten Watson noted that team trainers didn’t immediately tend to Freeland once he got to the dugout. Hyeseong Kim took over at second base in the bottom of the seventh.

Saturday particulars

**Home runs**: Kyle Tucker (3), Dalton Rushing (5) **WP — Brennan Bernardino (2-0)**: 1 1/3 IP, 2 strikeouts **LP — Will Klein (1-1)**: 1 IP, 3 hits, 2 runs **Sv — Victor Vodnik (3)**: 1 IP, 2 hits

Up next

Dodgers and Rockies are back at it on Sunday afternoon (12:10 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA), which remember, is *not* the series finale. Roki Sasaki is on the mound in the third game of the series, with Michael Lorenzen starting for the Rockies.