Rockies Report, Game 125:

ROCKIES BOTTOM LINE: After avoiding the inevitable 90th loss four during their four-game winning streak, the Rockies finally absorbed the inevitable on Tuesday night.

Falling into a 7-0 hole within the first three innings as the Dodgers pummeled starter Austin Gomber, the Rockies stirred but never caught up, eventually falling 11-4 to Los Angeles in front of 25,480 at Coors Field on Tuesday night.

The Rockies dropped to 36-90. They’re officially out of the race for the NL West, too; Los Angeles has 73 wins, and the worst the Dodgers can do is 73-89.

Since their inception in 1993, the Rockies have 12 seasons with at least 90 losses; this is tied with the Detroit Tigers and Baltimore Orioles for fifth-most in Major League Baseball in that span. The Kansas City Royals (16), Miami/Florida Marlins (13), Pittsburgh Pirates (13) and Washington Nationals/Montreal Expos (13) have more.

But this gave the Rox their fifth 90-loss season since their most-recent playoff appearance in 2018. In the six full seasons since then, they’ve avoided 90 defeats just once, when they finished 74-87 in 2021.

No other major-league club has that many seasons with at least 90 defeats. The Washington Nationals are likely to join the Rox in the coming weeks; they fired their general manager, Mike Rizzo, on July 6.

The Rockies have as many seasons with at least 90 defeats in the last six full seasons as they did in their previous 19.

The 90th defeat spiraled from the outset. After retiring Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to open th first inning, Austin Gomber walked Will Smith, then allowed consecutive doubles to Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández, putting the Rox in a 2-0 hole before they came to bat.

Mammoth solo homers from Alex Call and Ohtani doubled the Dodgers’ lead in the second inning, and a third-inning onslaught of five singles in six at-bats added three more runs to the tally, ending Gomber’s evening after just three innings.

A pair of home runs brightened Colorado’s otherwise dim night. Brenton Doyle delivered a two-run shot in the fourth; two innings later, third baseman Kyle Karros brightened the night with his first career home run, taking Emmet Sheehan deep with a 381-foot line-drive shot to left field that scored Warming Bernabel from first base.

That bumped the rookie third baseman’s OPS to .839 and pulled the Rox within 7-4 in the sixth inning.

You just knew Kyle Karros was going to hit his first MLB home run with his dad Eric, former Dodger, in the stands 🥹 pic.twitter.com/2DYElzvW73

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) August 20, 2025

But that was as close as Colorado got. Anthony Molina stopped the bleeding with three shutout innings to allow the Rox to whittle the lead. But the Dodgers led off the seventh with a pair of singles — the second of which dropped into no man’s land in left center field between three Rockies.

After a sacrifice bunt, interim manager Warren Schaeffer relieved Molina for Nick Anderson, whose first pitch skipped under Hunter Goodman’s glove, scoring Andy Pages from third base. After a four-pitch walk, Alex Call scored from third base on a Shohei Ohtani groundout, then Ohtani came home on a Will Smith single.

Los Angeles tacked on a final run in the ninth inning.

Molina delivered yeoman’s work in his 3 1/3 innings to limit the damage until the seventh. Nick Anderson and Dugan Darnell finished out the game, but neither one emerged unscathed; each allowed a run.

ROCKIES STARTER’S REPORT

Gomber had at least been able to go five or more innings in three of his last four starts, even though his struggles at avoiding the long ball continued through those appearances. But this time, he had no such fortune, as the Dodgers peppered him early and often.

“I thought he got ahead well, but I think he missed locations; it came back and bit him,” Schaeffer said. “Just a tough day for Gomby.”

Gomber has allowed at least one home run in nine consecutive starts, the longest such streak of his career. His HR/9 rate of 2.65 per nine innings is the second-worst for any pitcher with at least 50 innings in major-league baseball this year.

But those are numbers. What mattered most revealed itself after the game when Gomber admitted a loss of confidence.

“Just making bad pitches. Just feel like I”m in a bad spot right now; it sucks to let the team down,” he told media after the game.

“… I just feel like I’m just a little bit lost out there right now. I don’t really feel like I have any confidence, conviction, really don’t really have, like, an identity of what I’m trying to do. Just trying to figure it out. It is what it is.”

Gomber fell to 0-7.

BITS AND PIECES

IT WAS DECIDED FOR THE ROCKIES WHEN: Goodman allowed a passed ball to launch the Dodgers to a three-run seventh that put the game out of reach.

NUMBER TO NOTE: 4 — Consecutive starts in which Gomber has allowed two home runs.

WHAT’S NEXT: Tanner Gordon gets the nod for the Rockies in the third game of the series; Los Angeles counters with Ohtani. First pitch for the marquee game of the series will be at 6:40 p.m. MDT.