Eric Lauer makes his Dodger debut, Tommy Edman starts his rehab assignment with OKC – Dodgers Digest

The Dodgers (34-20) had another comeback win last night, scoring four in the seventh for a 5-3 win in the opener against the Rockies. Emmet Sheehan looked like he was in line for another rough start after he gave up two runs in the fourth and took a liner off the shoulder. He stayed in and got through six with only those two runs allowed, but left the game trailing after the Dodgers failed to get the big hit in Tanner Gordon‘s five innings. The Dodgers got the leadoff runner on in four of Gordon’s fine innings, but only scratched across one run on Enrique Hernandez‘s third-inning double. The Rockies snapped the Dodger bullpen’s scoreless inning streak with an Ezequiel Tovar leadoff homer in the seventh off Will Klein, but the Dodgers put up four in the seventh after two walks and a HBP loaded the bases with no outs. Shohei Ohtani grounded into a near-double-play but beat the throw after a challenge overturned the out call, Mookie Betts lifted a sac fly to tie the game, and Freddie Freeman drove in Ohtani on a double off the right field wall. Andy Pages singled in Freeman for a 5-3 lead, and the Dodger bullpen restarted their scoreless streak with shutout innings from Klein and Alex Vesia/Blake Treinen in the ninth. Today, the Dodgers look for a fourth-straight win and their 12th win in the last 14 games.

	7:10 P.M.		Los Angeles
1B	Castro (S)	DH	Ohtani (L)
RF	Freeman	CF	Pages
SS	Tovar	1B	Freeman (L)
C	Goodman	SS	Betts
DH	Fulford	RF	Tucker (L)
CF	McCarthy (L)	LF	T. Hernández
3B	Karros	C	Smith
LF	Johnston (L)	2B	Rojas
2B	Stevens	3B	K. Hernández
P	Freeland (L)	P	Lauer (L)

Eric Lauer makes his Dodger debut after years of tormenting the Dodgers. Lauer spent the first six years of his career in San Diego and Milwaukee and allowed 20 runs in 68 1/3 innings over 12 starts in that time. He spent last season in Toronto and posted a 3.18 ERA/3.85 FIP in 104 2/3 innings. He did face the Dodgers last August and they knocked him out of the game after three innings, with six hits and three runs (two homers). He also faced the Dodgers twice in the World Series and combined for 5 2/3 shutout innings with two hits allowed. Lauer started this season in the Toronto rotation, but posted a 6.69 ERA/6.90 FIP in 36 1/3 innings over eight outings. He gave up seven runs in 5 1/3 innings against Minnesota in his third start and got DFA’d after a bulk relief outing against the Angels where he allowed six runs in five innings. Outside of those two, Lauer was mostly ok this season. He’s allowed three or fewer runs in his other six outings but has yet to complete six innings in 2026. He struck out nine in his season debut, but only struck out 15 in his other seven outings combined.

Lefty Kyle Freeland gets his ninth start of the season for the Rockies. It hasn’t been pretty so far, as Freeland’s 7.04 ERA is the third-worst ERA among pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched only behind teammate Michael Lorenzen and Simeon Woods Richardson. He’s obviously been hurt by pitching half of his games at Coors, but he still has a 6.05 ERA away from Colorado and is giving up an .864 OPS on the road (compared to 8.05 and .982 at home). Freeland actually got off to a very nice start this season, allowing four runs over 15 2/3 innings in his first three starts. His fourth start was supposed to come in San Diego and he was announced as the starter, but was scratched just before pitching with shoulder soreness. He came back a couple weeks later and he proceeded to allow 23 runs in 18 innings over his next four starts, giving up at least four in each of them. He allowed six or seven runs in his first three starts of May, but is coming off a three-run outing against the Rangers in 4 2/3 innings. Freeland’s faced the Dodgers 26 times in his career and has a 4.67 ERA over 140 2/3 innings, but he has a 3.88 ERA in 13 games in LA. He’s struggled in his career against most of the Dodger lineup. Ohtani is 7-for-11 with a walk, two homers and a double off Freeland and Pages is 4-for-7 with a homer. Betts has taken Freeland deep twice, but Freeland has owned Freeman in his career. He’s faced Freeman 44 times in his career and Freddie is 8-for-39 with three walks and 14 strikeouts. Freeman hasn’t taken him deep yet, but four of his eight hits have been doubles. Also for the record, Lauer is 1-for-1 with a double off Freeland.

Freeland does run a 34.7 percent whiff rate which places him in the 84th percentile of pitchers in baseball. That doesn’t really generate a lot of whiffs though, as his 23.5 percent is below average (36th percentile). His 19.4 percent strikeout rate actually leads the Rockies’ staff, but ranks 109th out of 160 pitchers with at least 30 innings pitched. Freeland throws a five-pitch mix, leading with a four-seamer (27.5 percent) and knuckle-curve (23 percent). His best pitch has been the sweeper, which he throws 17 percent of the time and has a .125 average and .219 slugging against with expected numbers of .159 and .297, respectively. He’s also thrown a change (15.4 percent), cutter (14.3 percent) and sinker (2.9 percent).

Betts drops down to fourth in the lineup with Pages moving up to second. The lineup stays mostly the same other than that, with Miguel Rojas starting against a lefty in place of Hyeseong Kim.

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Three injuried Dodger relievers threw today.