*Photo from the Los Angeles Times*
What a day to be Los Angeles Dodgers prospect James Outman as the calendar turns to August. Cody Bellinger drove in a run, Outman homered in his MLB debut, and the Dodgers defeated the Colorado Rockies with a 7-3 victory on Sunday afternoon in Denver.
Stepping up to the plate in the 3rd inning for his first career plate appearance, Outman homered into the right field bullpens at Coors Field. By doing that, Outman became the 8th player in Dodgers history to homer in his first plate appearance at the major league level, and first since Keibert Ruiz in August of 2020, who is now with the Washington Nationals.
There's even more history in Outman's debut, who also had a 3 hit and 3 RBI day. He became the 3rd player in Dodgers history to homer and have 3 hits in his MLB debut, the first Dodger in 30 years to have at least 3 hits in his debut, the first player since Joey Gallo in 2015 to homer, have 3 hits, and drive in 3 runs in his MLB debut, and the first player in Dodgers to do the same in his debut.
Asked about homering in his first MLB plate appearance, Outman said that "I never really thought it was going to be something that was going to happen. It's awesome. When I hit it I thought it had a chance. I didn't want to be the first guy to hit a ball off the wall and have it be a single for my first hit, so I was running out of the box."
Once the Dodgers had a 2-0 lead on Outman's 3rd inning homer, Randal Grichuk drove in two runs with a single, and Brian Serven hit a solo homer, making it 3-2 Rockies. In the 4th, Cody Bellinger doubled in Jake Lamb, and Max Muncy scored on an error to make it a 4-3 Dodgers lead.
In the 6th inning, the Dodgers made it a 5-3 game when Lamb scored on a sac fly from Muncy. In the 7th, Outman scored on an RBI double from Freddie Freeman to make it a 6-3 lead for the Dodgers. In the 8th inning, Outman doubled home Gavin Lux to increase the Dodgers lead to a 7-3 margin.
Asked about what he would do with the home run ball, Outman said that "I’m going to stare at it for a long time. And then I’m going to put it up in my childhood room with all my Little League home runs and stuff like that. I'm 30 minutes away from San Francisco. So I might go drop it off."
Getting the start for the Dodgers was Tony Gonsolin, who got the win after allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and one walk, striking out 6 hitters in 5 innings pitched. Yency Almonte pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief before Alex Vesia came on to finish the 7th inning. Phil Bickford and Craig Kimbrel recorded shutout innings at the end of the game to seal the win.
Despite losing on Saturday, the Dodgers bounced back on Sunday to pick up the series win, taking 3 out of 4 games from one of their NL West division rivals, improving to 68-33 while winning their 7th game out of their last 10, furthering their stranglehold on the NL West lead.
It was German Marquez who started for the Rockies, allowing 5 runs on 6 hits and two walks in 6 innings of work. Robert Stephenson and Jake Bird each allowed one run in one inning of work, and Jordan Sheffield pitched a scoreless 9th inning.
Up next, the Dodgers start a series on Monday night with the San Francisco Giants, where Andrew Heaney is expected to draw the start. The Rockies face the San Diego Padres on Monday night, with Antonio Senzatela starting for the Rockies.
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