DENVER (AP) — James Outman homered on the first swing of his first big-league plate appearance and finished with three hits and three RBIs as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Colorado Rockies 7-3 Sunday and closed out July with 21 victories.
Freddie Freeman added three hits and an RBI, passing teammate Trea Turner for the MLB lead in hits. Tony Gonsolin (12-1) bounced back from his first loss of the season as the Dodgers finished the month 21-5, tying the franchise record for most wins in July. They scored 147 runs in the month.
“Obviously I’ve dreamed of it, playing Wiffle ball in the back yard and stuff like that,” Outman said of homering in his first at-bat. “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.”
Outman became the eighth Dodgers player in franchise history — the fourth since the move to Los Angeles — to homer in his first career plate appearance, joining Jose Offerman (1990), Garey Ingram (1994) and Keibert Ruiz (2020). Outman had 21 homers in 90 games between Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma this season before being promoted Saturday.
He is the only Los Angeles Dodger in franchise history with three hits and three RBIs in his first game, and he is first major leaguer since Joey Gallo with three hits, including a homer and three RBIs, in his debut. Gallo did it June 2, 2015.
“Historic — what a debut,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Really fun to watch. You can just see his joy. A day that he has dreamt about, and for it to play out like this. Today was about James Outman, and I couldn’t be more happy.”
The 25-year-old Outman,…
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