Walker Buehler did what he could to match Luis Castillo, but the Los Angeles Dodgers couldn’t take advantage of their opportunities and suffered a 3-1 loss that snapped a six-game winning streak.
Buehler held the Reds without a hit until Jonathan India’s two-out single in the third inning, though nothing came of it. That changed in the fifth when Kyle Farmer led off with a double and that was followed by an RBI single from Tucker Barnhart that broke up the scoreless tie.
Buehler managed to keep the Dodgers’ deficit at a minimum until Farmer delivered a two-run double with two outs in the sixth inning.
The night began in encouraging fashion for the Dodgers as Mookie Betts opened the game with a double. But that instead wound up setting a tone as Castillo stranded Betts and a Corey Seager walk.
Seager later singled in the fourth inning, only to be left on base once again. The Dodgers had another look at the game in the sixth when Trea Turner and Seager reached on back-to-back base hits before Castillo wiggled out of the jam.
With the Dodgers’ deficit at 3-0, Chris Taylor nearly delivered a pinch-hit two-run home run in the seventh inning. His drive to left field was caught on the warning track, and the same happened to a fly ball Betts hit to the right-center field gap to end the inning. Seager added to the frustration with his own ball hit to the warning track in the eighth.
Castillo finished with 10 strikeouts over 6.1 innings.
L.A. finally managed to break through in the ninth inning on Matt Beaty’s two-out RBI single. It was a second hit for Beaty, who started in left field because Gavin Lux was scratched due to a right forearm injury.
Dodgers have home-field advantage for Wild Card
Should L.A. fail to catch the San Francisco Giants in the National League West, they would host the Wild Card Game on Wednesday, Oct. 6, after clinching home-field advantage for the single-elimination contest.
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