Yoshinobu Yamamoto continued his excellent season and beat the Cincinnati Reds for the second time in a week, this time with seven scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.
Yamamoto was uncharacteristically wild to open the game, with eight of his first nine pitches outside the strike zone, but then completely settled down and didn’t walk another batter the rest of the way.
Elly De La Cruz doubled with two outs in the third, his fifth game with an extra-base
hit in five tries against the Dodgers over the last nine days. But the first four of those games included home runs, so Yamamoto keeping him in the park was a win.
After the double, Yamamoto retired his next 13 straight batters. After the two walks, Yamamoto retired 21 of 22 batters to finish seven innings for the third straight start and 12th game this season, the latter second-most in the majors.
Yamamoto finished with seven strikeouts and has allowed zero or one run in 14 of his 27 starts. Since the All-Star break, Yamamoto has a 1.98 ERA in 68 1/3 innings in 10 starts, with 72 strikeouts and 16 walks.
Yamamoto’s outing immediately following Tarik Skubal’s gem in Monday’s series opener gives the Dodgers back-to-back starts of at least seven scoreless innings for the first time since September 12-23, 2022, when Tyler Anderson and Clayton Kershaw turned the trick in Arizona. In both cases, the first such win clinched a postseason spot for the Dodgers.
Teoscar Hernández was hitless in each of the first two games in Miami to snap his hit streak before sitting on Sunday, and has now homered in each of the first two games in Cincinnati. On Tuesday, it was another hard-hit ball for Hernández, a 109.3-mph screamer over the left field wall for a two-run shot in the third inning to pad the Dodgers’ advantage.
Over Hernández’s last 14 games, he’s hitting .417/.517/.771 with four home runs, eight extra-base hits, and 18 RBI.
Notes
- After a planned off day Monday — his third time sitting in the previous five games with a sore right knee —Freddie Freeman snapped 0-for-16 and 1-for-26 skids with three singles on Tuesday.
- Catcher Hunter Feduccia drove in the Dodgers’ first run with an RBI single, his second straight start with a run batted in. He also walked twice, reaching base three times on Tuesday.
- Alex Freeland homered into the left (opposite) field corner in the seventh inning for an insurance run, and doubled in the ninth. It’s Freeland’s fourth game this season with two extra-base hits, along with March 27 (homer, double), April 25 (two doubles), and May 31 (homer, double).
- Josue De Paula batted leadoff and went 0 for 5. After five walks in his first 17 major league plate appearances, De Paula finally struck out in the big leagues and did so in his final two PA on Tuesday.
- The win reduced the Dodgers’ magic number to clinch the National League West to two over the Padres, with San Diego still playing the Rockies on Tuesday night in Denver.
Tuesday particulars
Home runs: Teoscar Hernández (15), Alex Freeland (4)
WP — Yoshinobu Yamamoto (14-8): 7 IP, 1 hit, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts
LP — Rhett Lowder (6-11): 5 IP, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 4 strikeouts
Up next
Blake Snell is on the mound on Wednesday night (3:40 p.m. PT, SportsNet LA), pitching on four days rest for the first time this season. Left-hander Andrew Abbott starts for Cincinnati.
