The Dodgers (33-20) closed out an excellent road trip with a 5-1 win in Milwaukee yesterday. Yoshinobu Yamamoto looked more like himself, allowing one run over seven innings for the second time on the road trip. The Dodgers actually scored some runs for Yama, getting a Moriyama Special for the first run before Kyle Tucker tripled home two in the fifth and Andy Pages launched a homer for a four-run inning. The bullpen continued its recent dominance, with Will Klein and Tanner Scott posting identical lines with two strikeouts in each of their perfect innings. The Dodgers salvaged their previous homestand winning the final two games of a four-game set against the Giants to have a 3-4 homestand, but went 7-2 on this nine-game road trip through Anaheim, San Diego and Milwaukee. Today, they return home for three against the Rockies before the surging Phillies come to town over the weekend.
The Rockies (20-34) started the season pretty decently, going 14-17 in the first month+ of the season after a 13-2 win over the Reds on April 29. If you do the math on their current record compared to that record, it’s not great. They’ve only won six of their last 23 games and haven’t won back-to-back games since May 7-8. The Dodgers went to Colorado back in April in a very frustrating four-game set, winning the first and last games but dropping the two in the middle on a pair of rough bullpen outings, including Edwin Diaz allowing three hits and a walk without recording an out before leaving with bodies in his elbow.
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| 6:10 P.M. | Los Angeles | ||
| CF | McCarthy (L) | DH | Ohtani (L) |
| C | Goodman | SS | Betts |
| 1B | Rumfield (L) | 1B | Freeman (L) |
| RF | Freeman | CF | Pages |
| LF | Johnston (L) | RF | Tucker (L) |
| 2B | Castro (S) | LF | T. Hernández |
| SS | Tovar | C | Smith |
| DH | Thompson (L) | 2B | Kim (L) |
| 3B | Karros | 3B | K. Hernández |
| P | Gordon (R) | P | Sheehan (R) |
Emmet Sheehan gets the ball coming off a rough start in San Diego. Sheehan became the first Dodger pitcher to pitch on four day’s rest this season and it showed, as he only lasted four innings and gave up four runs on five hits with only two strikeouts on 67 pitches. The Dodgers immediately gave Sheehan a lead to work with in the top of the first, but he allowed a two-run homer to the struggling Manny Machado in the bottom of the inning and then gave up another two-run bomb to Miguel Andujar in the third. The bats don’t hate Sheehan nearly as much as they do Yamamoto, so they did get him off the hook with a run off Mason Miller for a 5-4 win. For all the talk about whether Roki Sasaki was deserving of a rotation spot, he and Sheehan have very similar stat lines and are trending in opposite directions. Both have a 4.93 ERA in nine starts and each have thrown 45 2/3 innings. Sheehan has the FIP advantage (4.40 vs 5.21) as he strikes out more batters and walks fewer, but Sheehan’s had a much worse month of May. Sheehan’s only gotten through five innings in one of his four May starts and has a 5.12 ERA/4.84 FIP, while Sasaki’s completed five in each of his four starts and has a 3.52 ERA/3.30 FIP. Sheehan did turn in a solid start last month at Coors, holding the Rockies to two runs on four hits in five innings but took a no-decision after leaving the game with a lead that Klein promptly gave up in the sixth inning.
Tanner Gordon gets his first actual start of the season. He’s pitched seven times in a bulk/mop-up role and has a 6.59 ERA/4.40 FIP in 27 1/3 innings. Gordon made 23 starts over the last two seasons, but this will be his first of this season and his second time appearing before the fourth inning. Gordon had gone three or four innings in his first six outings, but after opener Sammy Peralta allowed two runs and only recorded two outs in the first inning last Tuesday against Texas, Gordon came in and pitched 6 1/3 innings. It didn’t go well, as he allowed 12 hits and seven runs to raise his ERA by more than a run. Gordon’s season started with four scoreless in Houston, but immediately unraveled in his second outing which came against the Dodgers. Gordon replaced Jose Quintana in the sixth inning with the Dodgers up 5-1 and did save the Rockies’ bullpen, but allowed six runs on seven hits and gave up three homers (one by Max Muncy, two by Dalton Rushing). The Rockies are 0-7 in games that Gordon’s pitched this season.
Gordon does have an above-average strikeout rate (25 percent) and one of the best walk rates in baseball (5 percent, tied for 15th among pitchers with >20 innings). Unfortunately when he does give up contact, it’s generally very good contact. His 15.5 percent barrel rate is tied for the seventh-worst in baseball and his 91.5 MPH average exit velocity is tied for the 19th-worst. He combines that with a 29.6 percent ground ball rate, which means he’s allowing a lot of loud contact in the air. Gordon leads with a four-seamer (35 percent) and mixes in a slider (26.3 percent), change (20.4 percent), curve (10.1 percent) and sinker (8.2 percent).
Enrique Hernández returns to the team and makes his 2026 debut at third, hitting ninth. Pages stays in the cleanup spot with Tucker hitting fifth.
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Hernández’s return spells the end of the Santiago Espinal era.
#Dodgers reinstated infielder/outfielder Kiké Hernández from the injured list and designated infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal for assignment.
— Kirsten Watson (@kirsten_watson) May 25, 2026
Kiké returns after 12 rehab games following offseason elbow surgery, giving the Dodgers a versatile righty off the bench. That was Espinal’s role, and he was designated for assignment for Kiké’s spot on the 26 and 40-man rosters. Espinal appeared in 26 games and only got 44 plate appearances with the Dodgers after a very strong Spring. He posted a .604 OPS and did get his first homer a couple weeks ago against the Giants.
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Other injury updates also rolled in.
Tyler Glasnow started playing catch after his throwing program was paused with back pain. He’s missed nearly three weeks so he’ll need a rehab assignment to build back up.
They’re hoping Muncy will be back on Wednesday in the finale against the Rockies. That would be four days post-injury, and I’d be kinda surprised if they don’t choose to use the off day Thursday to get him an extra rest. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he’s out until August.
Tommy Edman will start his rehab assignment with OKC tomorrow. He’s still looking at a mid-late-June return, but would add even more of a roster crunch.
Diaz is also expected to begin his throwing program in the next couple days.
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First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 PM PT and will be on SportsNet LA.