Tyler Anderson got in a groove from the first inning and kept on going.

Anderson tossed a career-high eight scoreless innings Kerryon Johnson Lions Jersey , Pat Valaika, Nolan Arenado and Chris Iannetta homered, and the Colorado Rockies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-1 on Friday night.

Anderson (5-3) struck out eight and walked one on 96 pitches. The left-hander retired his first 11 batters before giving up a two-out single to Justin Turner in the fourth. Matt Kemp singled leading off the fifth and Yasiel Puig narrowly beat out the throw on a two-out bunt in the same inning.

”It’s been a while since everything has really been on,” Anderson said. ”My last couple of starts were pretty close, I felt like my command was there I just made a couple mistakes. Tonight I didn’t make those mistakes. It was a total mix of all my pitches.”

Anderson retired five straight batters before allowing a single to Cody Bellinger in the seventh. Anderson improved to 4-0 on the road with a 3.48 ERA while holding hitters to a .216 average. The Rockies have won seven of his last nine starts away from home.

”He kept us off-balance,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. ”He has a three, four-pitch mix that we couldn’t get any swings off of.”

Iannetta homered leading off the ninth, extending Colorado’s lead to 3-0.

Arenado hit his team-high 20th homer in the eighth and Valaika homered over the center-field fence for Colorado’s first run in the fifth.

Valaika homered for the first time since last Sept. 24 at San Diego. It was just his second homer ever at Dodger Stadium. His first long ball in the majors came on Sept. 24, 2016, in the same stadium.

”It felt good to put the barrel on the ball in a real game, a big league game Authentic Anthony Averett Jersey ,” Valaika said. ”It felt good to get the lead, too.”

The Rockies turned double plays behind Anderson in the fifth and eighth innings.

”Andy pitched great. He was spotting up everything, it was pretty easy to play defense,” Valaika said. ”I was thinking it was the third inning and I hadn’t really fielded anything yet.”

Wade Davis worked the ninth to earn his 23rd save in 27 chances.

Rich Hill (1-3) pitched solidly in his third start since coming off the disabled list because of a finger blister. Only one of his six hits was for extra bases, a double by Trevor Story in the sixth.

”The ball came out of my hand the way I wanted it to,” Hill said. ”Everything was really came together.”

Hill struck out a season-high 10 and didn’t walk anyone while allowing one run in 6 2/3 innings. His 110 pitches were a season high and the most he’s thrown since May 13, 2016, at Tampa Bay.

But the Dodgers’ bullpen struggled for the second straight game. Scott Alexander gave up Arenado’s homer and Yimi Garcia allowed Iannetta’s shot.

A day earlier, Walker Buehler was rocked for five runs and five hits in one-plus innings of an 11-5 loss to the Cubs.

Turner’s two-out shot in the ninth gave the Dodgers a franchise-record and major league-leading 54 homers in June with one day left.

”This team has set the record for the most home runs in the month for them, so clearly they’re trying to put the ball in the air,” Anderson said. ”Tonight when they did it they were just underneath a lot of things.”

The Rockies began the month getting swept by the Dodgers in a three-game series Anthony Miller Jersey , with Los Angeles scoring 33 runs in those games. Colorado improved to 5-2 against Los Angeles this season.

PITCHER CAN HIT

Anderson collected a career high-tying two hits with singles in the third and seventh. Hill had an 0-2 count against him in the third and appeared annoyed when Anderson made contact. ”He’s a good hitting pitcher,” Hill said.

SLUMP BUSTED

Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp singled in the fifth, snapping an 0-for-15 skid. In his last 23 games against the Rockies since Sept. 20, 2015, Kemp has hit .389.

UP NEXT

RHP German Marquez (5-8, 5.53 ERA) starts for Colorado, which has won four of his seven road starts this season. He has a 3.07 ERA away from home compared to 7.93 in Denver. RHP Kenta Maeda (5-4, 3.44) goes for the Dodgers. In eight career games, including six starts, Maeda is 5-2 with a 2.11 ERA to go with 48 strikeouts and nine walks.

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No one on the Utah Jazz is using the word ”stop” when referring to what they’ll try to do to James Harden in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday night after the Houston Rockets‘ star scored 41 points in a Game 1 rout.

They’re simply searching for ways to slow him down a bit after he’s averaged almost 36 points a game in five meetings this season.

”He is a (heck) of a player so it’s going to be tough, but we feel like we can just try to make it a bit tough on him for the whole (time) he’s out there Hayden Hurst Ravens Jersey ,” Utah’s Joe Ingles said.

Harden made seven 3-pointers in Game 1, leaving the Jazz focused on limiting him from long range.

”Just make him a driver,” rookie Donovan Mitchell said. ”He loves getting back to that 3. They got comfortable in the first half and they went up 30. So just being able to make them uncomfortable and not let them dictate what we do on defense. Make sure we dictate what they do.”

Coach Mike D’Antoni isn’t concerned about anything that the Jazz might throw at Harden on Wednesday and believes the only thing that can keep Harden from a big game is, well, Harden.

”There’s no answer. He’s seen it all,” D’Antoni said. ”Now, he might play bad and that’s because he’s human. But there’s nothing that you can conceivably come up with that can stop one of the best offensive players ever.”

Harden led the NBA in scoring in the regular season by averaging a career-high 30.4 points a game and ranks second behind LeBron James this postseason with 31 points a game.

Houston’s Trevor Ariza, a player known for his defense, has the task of guarding Mitchell in this series. He was asked what he would try if he had to guard Harden. There was a long pause before Ariza let out a loud sigh and said with a laugh: ”I’d figure out a way to slow him down.”

But the veteran is happy to be playing with Harden and not against him.

”I’m glad I don’t have that problem right now,” he said. ”I wouldn’t tell them what I think. I would let them try to figure it out on their own.”

The top-seeded Rockets expect to see a different team than they did in Game 1 after the Jazz had only about 36 hours between the end of Game 6 against the Thunder and the start of this series.

”I think a couple days’ rest will help them and we’ll get the best they’ve got,” D’Antoni said.

The Jazz refused to use fatigue as an excuse for their poor performance in Game 1 Authentic Josh Allen Jersey , but they did admit that they were feeling better about this game with a little bit of rest. Mitchell said having two days to break down film and work on their game plan has also been beneficial.

Despite trailing by double digits for most of Sunday’s game, the Jazz don’t seemed daunted or discouraged entering Game 2.

”A lot of people have been hitting me up saying: ”Try to keep your head up. It’s only Game 1,”’ Mitchell said. ”And my head was never down. I don’t think any of our heads were ever down. It’s just one game out of a long series … I think being down 0-1 last series and seeing how we came back and responded definitely gives you a sense of more hope than if this would have been the opening round.”

The Jazz will try and even the series without starting point guard Ricky Rubio, who sat out Game 1 and is out indefinitely with a strained left hamstring. The Rockets believe Rubio’s absence changed things for Mitchell. He scored a playoff-high 38 points in Game 6 to lead Utah to the win before scoring 21, which were his fewest of the postseason, on Sunday.

”It makes Donovan handle the ball more than they would like,” Ariza said of Rubio’s injury. ”He’s their dominant scorer at this point so when he has to handle the ball and get everybody involved in the game it kind of takes away from him scoring the ball all the time or being aggressive all the time.”

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