Dodgers handle cold weather and Rockies easily in latest win

DENVER — Neither rain nor sleet nor snow – well, definitely snow – can keep the Dodgers from their appointed rounds.

Snow covered the field at Coors Field for much of the day on Friday and the game-time temperature of 35 degrees was the lowest recorded at the start of a Dodger game (per Stathead’s online research tool). But the Dodgers bundled up, fought off the chill by scoring runs in each of the first five innings and warmed their hands over a 7-1 defeat of the Colorado Rockies.

“It was a dry cold,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts joked after returning to the warmth of his office.

“But I’d be very surprised if the elements got to us. They clearly didn’t tonight.”

If anyone was a prime culprit for that, it was Dodgers starter Tyler Glasnow. Glasnow had never pitched at Coors Field before and couldn’t even remember spending time there as a non-combatant with the visiting team. Given Coors Field’s history as a torture chamber for pitchers, Glasnow had reason to dread his mile-high baptism – particularly on a 35-degree night.

“I think I’ve thought about it. Not a lot. But I definitely have heard all the metrics are bad and everything like that,” said Glasnow, who relies on a sharp-breaking curveball – a pitch that doesn’t always translate at altitude. “But warming up, I could tell on my heater a little bit, but the curveball still felt good. So whatever thing I thought before kind of went away warming up, feeling good. And in the first couple innings, looking at the metrics, having those posted, I was like, ‘Alright, it’s pretty normal stuff. I feel good.’ So I didn’t think about it.”

The weather has been known to weigh on Glasnow’s mind. Last April, a start in the rain at Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park went awry when he felt out of sorts, fiddling with the mound and his mechanics. He gave up five runs without retiring a batter in the third inning.

Roberts has said since the start of spring training that Glasnow has grown tremendously since last year (particularly via his postseason role) and is a different player this year.

“Absolutely,” Roberts reasserted Friday. “With the season, there’s just so many things that are unforeseen and you’ve just got to be willing to adapt and find ways to get through it. I think in years past things affected him. He’ll admit that. I think right now where he’s at, he’s just put the blinders on and he’s performed. For us, that’s really good to see.”

Glasnow said the difference is living with the mechanical changes he made going into last season for over a year now. The changes were primarily aimed at keeping the oft-injured Glasnow healthier.

“I definitely feel different this year compared to last year, as far as making all those changes,” he said. “I just didn’t really feel like myself when I’d go out there. When you pitch a certain way for so long, and then you switch up so many things, you just kind of feel in unfamiliar territory. So I think just being able to go back to what I was doing throughout my career, changing it from last year to this year, I’m a little bit freer, or more athletic. I can focus on what I need to focus on, as opposed to trying to feel normal.”

Glasnow dealt with Friday’s elements – both the cold and the altitude that threatens to flatten out any pitch mix – just fine.

Through his first three starts, Glasnow had relied on his curveball 32% of the time. In the cold and thin air, he rode his fastball, throwing the four-seamer 55 times and his curveball 23 in 92 pitches while cruising through seven innings for the first time this season.

He didn’t give up a hit until the fourth inning when Mickey Moniak led off with a double. Two ground balls turned that into the Rockies’ only run of the game.

Ezequiel Tovar doubled with two outs in the seventh inning for the Rockies’ only other hit off Glasnow who struck out seven.

“(That is) just kind of where he’s at right now – physically, mentally, emotionally, all that stuff,” Roberts said of the two-hit outing. “He just wasn’t distracted. Nothing was going to affect his performance tonight. He didn’t have his best stuff tonight, maybe because of the cold. Still to be efficient, put us in position to win, go seven innings, the most he’s gone this year – really helpful as you start a run without an off day.”

Friday’s weather was unusual. The outcome was not.

The Dodgers (off to an MLB-best 15-4 start) have made it a routine, beating the woebegone Rockies in recent years. They have won 32 of their past 40 meetings.

Shohei Ohtani started the cold play with a leadoff double off Rockies starter Tomoyuki Sugano, a frequent victim in their days in Japan who served up home runs to Ohtani in their first two MLB faceoffs last September. Ohtani scored on a sacrifice fly by Will Smith.

Max Muncy took an effective route to staying warm, leading off the second inning with a home run so he could head straight back into the heated dugout. After an RBI double in the Dodgers’ two-run third inning, Muncy homered again leading off the fifth inning against Rockies reliever Zach Agnos.

For Muncy, the three-hit, two-homer game followed a 1-for-17 stretch after his three-home run game last week against the Texas Rangers.

“The three-homer game, I did exactly what I was wanting to do with my mechanics and then the next couple games there was something that was causing it to be off,” Muncy said. “And that’s why I was saying we’re tinkering every day and the idea is there. And when I’m doing what I’m supposed to do, the results have been really good. It’s just trying to get that to be consistent on a daily basis.”

Everyone in the Dodgers’ starting lineup except Teoscar Hernandez kept active to stay warm, collecting at least one hit Friday. Smith collected a second RBI on a single. Andy Pages drove in his MLB-leading 21st run on a sacrifice fly and added a single. Freddie Freeman was on base three times with a double, a single and a walk. Kyle Tucker had a double and scored a run. Hyeseong Kim had a single and a walk and stole bases each time.