Emmet Sheehan will take the mound Monday, May 25, when the Los Angeles Dodgers open a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies — the latest test in a tight NL West race.
The matchup pairs Sheehan against Rockies right-hander Tanner Gordon and lands with clear stakes: the Dodgers enter at 33-20 and are embroiled in a heated battle with the San Diego Padres, while Colorado sits in last place at 20-34 after a recent series loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The raw numbers are stark. The Dodgers and Rockies split a four-game series in April, but the teams have diverged since. The Rockies have dropped eight consecutive series in May and arrive wounded after the Diamondbacks, while the Dodgers have been trying to preserve margin in the division. For Los Angeles the series is not a tune-up — it is part of a run that will define who controls the NL West over the summer.
Sheehan’s start is the headliner. The right-hander owns a 4.93 ERA across nine starts this season and in his most recent outing against San Diego he allowed four runs over four innings. That result irked the Dodgers’ rotation numbers, but Sheehan also has a counterpoint: last month he held the Rockies to two runs over five innings and struck out four, the only time this season he stitched together that kind of extended, controlled outing against Colorado hitters.
On the other side, Gordon’s ledger is raw. He carries a 6.59 ERA through 27.1 innings this year. Last week he worked a long relief outing — 6.1 innings in bulk relief against the Texas Rangers — but that outing produced seven runs on 12 hits. The length of Gordon’s recent appearance will matter to a Rockies staff that has struggled to stop sustained rallies.
Context makes the stakes sharper. The Dodgers arrived at this homestand after a road stretch in which they had won seven of nine games, a surge they will try to convert into cushion against the Padres. The Rockies’ slide, by contrast, accelerated after the loss to Arizona. Both teams know the April split was no guarantee of repeat results; the series this week could look very different when influenced by form and pitching matchups.
The friction is obvious on Monday. Sheehan’s season ERA and his four-run, four-inning line against San Diego argue for caution; his five-inning, two-run showing against Colorado last month suggests he can be effective against the same hitters. Gordon’s ability to eat innings after the Rangers game is useful for a bullpen that needs breathing room, but the seven runs and 12 hits he allowed raise questions about how much the Rockies can rely on him to slow a Dodgers lineup that has shown consistent pressure.
How the two starters perform will likely decide the tenor of the series. If Sheehan replicates the control and swing-and-miss that produced five innings and four strikeouts last month, the Dodgers will have the starting-point stability they need to protect a 33-20 record and keep the Padres at bay. If Gordon can translate his long relief workload into quality innings rather than hard contact, Colorado might find a way to make this series competitive despite its position at 20-34.
