Braden Montgomery gets first day off since June 19

Lombard missed four starts with knee soreness. He’s batting seventh in his return, which is the lowest he’s hit since Aug. 15. With Lombard starting and Ryan McMahon back, José Caballero is sitting for the first time since Aug. 19.

Rocchio hadn’t homered in three weeks before ruining Keider Montero’s afternoon today. Five innings later, he ended the game with a 405-foot blast off Drew Sommers. By three feet, it was longest flyball of his career. It’s also his first time ever hitting two homers or driving in five runs in a game. He has 12 homers in 520 plate appearances this year, nearly matching his total of 13 in 911 career plate appearances coming into 2026.

Smith allowed six hits, walked two and struck out one. There’s a good chance he’ll be swapped out for a fresh arm after this, as he hasn’t done much good while amassing a 5.94 ERA in 16 2/3 innings this season.

Smith struck out two in a 6-6 game before Brayan Rocchio won it in the bottom of the ninth. It’ll be interesting to see if he’s available in the nightcap after throwing 18 pitches in game one. He’s never pitched in both games of a doubleheader before, but he’d pitched just once in nine days coming into this one.

Montero had a 4-0 lead after the top half of the first and a 6-1 lead through three, but he gave up a grand slam as part of a five-run fourth inning and didn’t come back out for the fifth. It’s the first time this season that he’s been charged with six earned runs. He’s due to make his next start Wednesday against the Twins, but given that he’s had some issues bouncing back lately, he might need some extra time.

Clark also was credited with a big sliding catch in left field in the seventh. It actually looked like he trapped the ball, but it was declared an out on the field and the call stood on replay. Clark is up to .275/.342/.450 with 16 RBI through 31 big-league games. Except for a drop in his walk rate, that’s hardly much different than his .276/.368/.434 line from Triple-A.

Castro had started all but three games since the All-Star break until Tuesday. Now he’s absent for three in a row. It’s not a bad idea for the Rockies to go to their younger players, but it is surprising to see Castro completely erased from the mix like this. He’s hitting .259/.331/.496 with eight homers in the second half.

Thank goodness we don’t get to miss out on Báez at Coors. He had sat in favor of Bryan Torres the last two times the Cardinals faced righties. Torres is still in the lineup tonight, but he’s playing second base over José Fermin.

The Dodgers downplayed any real sense of concern about Ohtani’s issues last night, but now he’s absent from the DH spot again. Alex Call is again starting there with the Nationals throwing a lefty. Dalton Rushing figures to enter a game once a righty takes over.

McClanahan said it was more of a tightness issue than a pain issue. If he makes it back during the regular season, it’d almost surely be for just one tuneup start ahead of the postseason. It’ll probably be a few days before it comes clear whether that is realistic or not.