The Los Angeles Dodgers, cruising through the season without a National League loss, finally hit a snag against the Colorado Rockies. The tension didn’t come from a blowout or a sloppy finish. It came from a handful of pitches in the sixth inning, and one comment afterward that quickly shifted the conversation.
A Sixth Inning That Flipped the Dodgers Game
The game itself came down to a narrow margin. Down 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth, Colorado found a way through, starting with a sharp sequence that unraveled Dodgers reliever Will Klein. Hunter Goodman and Ezequiel Tovar came around to score after Troy Johnston drilled a double, flipping the score to 4-3. That number held. No late comeback, no dramatic reversal. Just a clean, contained loss.
“A Little Fishy” Raises Eyebrows
But the aftermath didn’t stay contained.
Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing, making just his fifth start of the season, didn’t outright accuse the Rockies of wrongdoing, but he didn’t exactly dismiss the idea either. His comments landed in that gray area that tends to raise eyebrows.
“I think it’s odd,” Rushing said, pointing to what he described as aggressive, early-pitch swings. “It’s a little fishy, but I’ll wear it.”
The phrasing matters. Not a direct claim, but enough to suggest discomfort with how the inning unfolded. Yet the details of that inning complicate the narrative. Only one Rockies batter, Tovar, actually swung at the first pitch he saw, lining a single that set things in motion. Goodman watched a first-pitch strike before connecting on a sweeper for a double. Johnston, who delivered the decisive blow, showed patience, taking multiple pitches before driving the fourth offering into the gap.
Roberts Points to Execution Over Suspicion
Rushing himself seemed to recognize that, walking back the tone slightly by acknowledging shared responsibility. He pointed to pitch selection and the possibility that the Dodgers simply fed into Colorado’s approach. It wasn’t a full retreat, but it introduced doubt into his earlier suggestion.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts offered a far more direct explanation. No intrigue, no suspicion,just execution.
“I saw some bad breaking balls,” Roberts said.
That assessment strips the moment down to fundamentals. Missed locations, hittable pitches, and a lineup that capitalized. No hidden signals, no elaborate schemes, just a few mistakes in a tight game that tipped the balance.
Still, Rushing’s comment lingers, not because it proves anything, but because it introduces a question that didn’t need to be asked. In a season where margins are thin and expectations are high, even a single inning can spark doubt, especially when it ends a perfect run.
