A curious development of the 2018 season continued on Tuesday as the Los Angeles Dodgers lost, 3-1, to the Cincinnati Reds. They’ve now yet to come up with a win in any of the six head-to-head meetings between the clubs this year.
Adding further insult to remaining winless against one of the National League’s worst teams was the Dodgers were done in by a pair of former prospects. Specifically Brandon Dixon and Scott Schebler, who along with Jose Peraza, were traded to the Reds in exchange for Frankie Montas, Micah Johnson and Trayce Thompson.
Dixon’s solo home run off Hyun-Jin Ryu in the second inning broke a scoreless tie, and Schebler’s blast in the third inning extended the Reds’ lead to 2-0.
Meanwhile, Scooter Gennett, who has tormented the Dodgers all season long, tacked on an RBI single in the fifth. Gennett to that point improved to 15-for-21 (.714 batting average) with 10 RBI against the Dodgers in 2018.
Ryu’s night came to an end after five innings. He allowed three runs on eight hits, including the two home runs, and also recorded six strikeouts.
His effort was bested by Luis Castillo, who settled in after allowing singles to two of the first three batters of the game. Castillo not only stranded Joc Pederson and Manny Machado by striking out Cody Bellinger and Yasmani Grandal, he proceeded to retire 15 in a row.
Included in that was striking out the side in the third inning on just 13 pitches. That gave Castillo seven strikeouts to that point in the game. His streak of retired batters was snapped on Pederson’s one-out solo home run in the sixth inning.
Castillo did exit in a bit of trouble and responsible for runners at the corners in the seventh. After Sal Romano retired Chris Taylor, Yasiel Puig found himself in another key situation. Just like in the series opener he put forth a quality at-bat.
This time, rather than lining into a frustrating inning-ending double play, Puig worked a walk. It brought Justin Turner off the bench but he grounded out to strand the bases loaded.
The Dodgers finished 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left five on base.
