Most of July has been a slog for the Dodgers, but their stars played like stars in Monday night’s 5-2 win over the Reds at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
Mookie Betts reached base three times and scored three runs. Shohei Ohtani had a two-run double and later walked and scored. Teoscar Hernández had two separate RBI singles, and Freddie Freeman added an RBI single as well.
Those top four hitters in the lineup combined for six hits, three walks, four runs scored, and four RBI on Monday.
Production
of late has been a welcome sight for Hernández, who struggled since returning from his groin strain in May and also was slowed by a foot injury earlier in July. He homered twice over the weekend at Fenway Park, and over his last five games is 7-for-19 (.368) with six runs batted in.
It was a fun mound matchup between emerging ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto and one of the most exciting young pitchers in the sport in Chase Burns, who struck out 10 for his third consecutive start. And given the reactions of both teams, this game also featured the artistic stylings of home plate umpire Andy Fletcher.
Each team scored in the first inning, with Betts leading off the game with a double, his second extra-base hit in his last 10 games. Gavin Lux, facing his old team for the first time, drove in the equalizer in the bottom of the inning, albeit on a groundout.
Yamamoto was quite stingy after that, thanks to nine strikeouts and 21 swinging strikes, the latter his most in a start since joining the Dodgers.
Yamamoto lasted seven innings for the fifth time this season, and the third time in July. The rest of the staff has three such starts this season.
Ohtani’s two-run double off Burns in the fifth inning gave the Dodgers the lead back, and the Dodgers added two more in the seventh off the Reds bullpen.
Blake Treinen, who was just activated off the 60-day injured list on Sunday, had a rocky ninth inning, allowing a run on two singles and two walks in his first major league game since April 13. He was pulled with two outs with the bases loaded and a 5-2 lead.
In came Jack Dreyer, who got the final out to record his first major league save, joining Ben Casparius as the second Dodger to do so in the last four days.
Notes
- Ohtani scored his 100th run of the season on Freeman’s single in the seventh. Ohtani is just the seventh major leaguer since 1950 to score 100 within their team’s first 107 games, and the first to do so since Jim Edmonds in 2000.
- Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz is second to Ohtani in the National League with 78 runs scored this season.
- Dalton Rushing was hit by a pitch on his right hand in the eighth inning but remained in the game.
Monday particulars
Home runs: none
WP — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (9-7): 7 IP, 4 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 9 strikeouts
LP — Chase Burns (0-3): 5⅔ IP, 6 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk, 10 strikeouts
Sv — Jack Dreyer (1): 1 up, 1 down
Up next
Tyler Glasnow is coming off a season-high 12 strikeouts heading into his start on Tuesday night (4:10 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA), with left-hander Nick Lodolo on the mound for the Reds.
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