LOS ANGELES _ Three straight games, three straight walk-off home runs hit by rookies. The Los Angeles Dodgers completed the improbable feat Sunday when Will Smith hit a pinch-hit three-run home run to right-center field to lift the Dodgers to a 6-3 victory over the Colorado Rockies before a crowd of 50,023 in Dodger Stadium.
Matt Beaty, who sparked a three-run seventh inning rally with an infield single, beat out another infield single off reliever Scott Oberg to lead off the ninth. Enrique Hernandez fouled out to first base for the first out. Beaty advanced to second on a wild pitch during an at-bat that ended with a Chris Taylor strikeout.
Catcher Russell Martin was intentionally walked, and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts sent Smith, who was recalled from triple-A Oklahoma City on Sunday morning, to hit in the pitcher's spot.
Smith drove a 1-and-0 slider to deep right-center, and the ball carried over the wall, following Beaty's game-winning homer in the ninth inning Friday night and Alex Verdugo's game-winning homer in the 11th inning Saturday night.
The Dodgers were trailing 2-0 when Taylor crushed the first pitch he saw from reliever Chad Bettis for a pinch-hit three-run home run in the seventh inning for a 3-2 Dodgers lead.
Rockies starter Antonio Senzatela had blanked the Dodgers on three hits and allowed only one runner to reach second base through six innings, and the right-hander got Max Muncy to ground out to second for the first out of the seventh.
But Beaty beat out an infield single and took third on Hernandez's double to right-center. Colorado manager Bud Black pulled Senzatela in favor of the right-handed Bettis. Roberts sent Taylor up to bat for Austin Barnes.
Bettis hung a first-pitch 78-mph curve that Taylor drove 425 feet into the left-field pavilion, turning a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead. Taylor is batting .394 (13 for 33) with three homers, three doubles and 11 RBIs in 11 games since shortstop Corey Seager went on the injured list,
That nearly made a winner out of Kenta Maeda, who allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings, striking out six and walking two, and escaped a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the fifth.
But Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez couldn't hold the lead in the eighth. Daniel Murphy led off with a single to right-center. Baez struck out Ryan McMahon and pinch-hitter Nolan Arenado, but Tony Walters laced a double into the right-field corner.
Cody Bellinger retrieved the ball near the wall and fired to strong-armed second baseman Enrique Hernandez, whose one-hop throw to the plate arrived well before Murphy but nicked off the glove of Martin. Murphy was safe, and the score was tied 3-3.
Colorado took a 1-0 lead in the first when David Dahl hit an opposite-field homer to left. The Rockies pushed the lead to 2-0 in the third when Garrett Hampson singled with one out, Murphy singled with two outs and McMahon hit an RBI single to left.
The game was delayed for a few minutes in the first inning when a Bellinger line drive hit just beyond the protective netting that extends to the end of the first-base dugout struck a young woman in the head. Paramedics tended to the fan, who was sitting four rows from the field. After Bellinger flied out to end the inning, he checked on the fan before taking his position in right field. A Rockies player tossed a ball to a family member.
The young woman remained in her seat while holding an ice pack on her head for the top of the second inning before she was taken to a hospital for precautionary tests. The name of the fan was not released, but a person in the stadium first-aid office said she was alert and answering questions.
