After putting down the tag, and spotting the home plate umpire’s safe motion, Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing immediately pointed to the Dodgers dugout, urging manager Dave Roberts to challenge the call.
Robert’s hands flew up to his ears, asking for a replay review.
Then the announcement: “The catcher touched the runner’s hand before he reached the plate…”
The crowd’s applause drowned out the rest.
The go-ahead run had been on the line with that challenge in the Dodgers’ eventual 8-7 win over the Rockies in 11 innings. And it started a wild sequence to the Dodgers’ first extra-innings game of the season that ended with Rushing hitting a walk-off single to center field to score Teoscar Hernández.
Dodgers closer Tanner Scott took the mound with a three-run lead in the ninth. But after giving up an RBI double to Kyle Karros and a bases-loaded double to Cole Carrigg, Scott forfeited the lead. The Dodgers’ successful replay challenge kept the game tied.
There was briefly another twist: The Rockies countered with their own challenge, arguing that Rushing had blocked the plate. But the replay review again went the Dodgers’ way.
Max Muncy led the bottom of the ninth with a single, and Tommy Edman moved him over with a pinch-hit sacrifice bunt. After Rushing struck out on a foul tip, the Rockies intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani.
That brought up Andy Pages with two outs. But a successful Rockies ABS challenge confirmed a strikeout, sending the game into the 10th inning. The Dodgers had gone 91 games without having to play in extra innings — the second-longest streak in MLB history.
Then two batters into the 10th inning, the benches cleared.
With one out and Carrigg on third, Jake McCarthy hit a sharp ground ball to Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman, who stepped on the bag and fired home.
Rushing flung his whole body into the tag, but Carrigg was called safe. Rushing put an extra tag on Carrigg as he got up just to be safe.
Carrigg said something as began to walk away, and Rushing spun around.
As the two went back and forth, Dodgers reliever Edgardo Henriquez pulled his catcher away from the heated exchange, but players from both dugouts and bullpens already began to spill onto the field.
After a brief stoppage, Henriquez escaped without further damage.
The Dodgers got another shot, with Pages on second to start the inning. Freeman’s groundout moved him to third. Then Mookie Betts drove him in with a comebacker over the mound and past flailing second baseman Edouard Julien.
Tucker then looped a single into no-man’s land. But the rally ended when Teoscar Hernández’s liner up the middle landed in the glove of Rockies right-hander Jimmy Herget, who just entered the game, catching Tucker off first base for a double play.
In the 11th, Henriquez got out of the inning unscathed. He got Julien to pop out on a sacrifice bunt attempt and then started a double play himself. He punched the air as he walked off the mound.
And in the end, Rushing was the hero.
Hernández made it to third on Edman’s sacrifice fly. Then Rushing delivered his walk-off single.
He spun his helmet behind him as he jogged toward the center of the field, ready for the celebration that would meet him there.
The Dodgers became the first team to win 60 games this season.
Early in the game, the Dodgers’ offense hummed along, fueled in part by the Rushing-Ohtani one-two punch (Ohtani’s three-hit day was a promising sign after he’d missed the game Saturday for a right biceps issue).
On his first at-bat in the third, Rushing drove a first-pitch sinker to right field for a double. Ohtani then hit a home run to left field, carrying his bat halfway up the line and giving it a little flip when the ball landed to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
The next inning, the Dodgers had already started a rally when Rushing stepped up to the plate. Kyle Tucker, Hernández and Muncy hit consecutive singles, and Miguel Rojas added a sacrifice fly, putting the Dodgers up 4-1.
Then Rushing again ambushed the first pitch — a knuckle curve on the inside edge — and drove it off the right-field wall.
Ohtani followed with a sharp grounder through the middle of the field for a two-run single, with Rushing scoring from first on a close play at the plate.
Dodgers starting pitcher Eric Lauer turned in a quality start, allowing three runs in six innings.
Roster moves
Dodgers right-hander Evan Phillips is in line to make his first major-league appearance since May 2025. Phillips only made seven appearances last season, starting on the injured list with a strained rotator cuff before undergoing Tommy John surgery in June.
“It’s going to be a lot different tonight getting back out there in a competitive game, the full atmosphere,” Phillips said. “Really excited about that. I feel like probably the past two weeks or so I really took a good turn in my rehab, started bouncing back even better, pitching more like myself, feeling more like myself. So really just happy to carry that over to these games and see how the second half treats us.”
In a pair of corresponding moves, the Dodgers optioned right-handed reliever Paul Gervase to triple-A Oklahoma City and released left-hander Jake Eder.
The Dodgers also designated catcher Chuckie Robinson for assignment and added right-hander Carlos Duran to the 40-man roster. Both players are set to stay in Oklahoma City, with Robinson accepting his outright assignment.
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