The Los Angeles Dodgers ended Cincinnati’s up-and-down season on a downer, another beatdown, 8-4.
After a long, drawn-out scratch and scramble during the final month of the season to catch the New York Mets to qualify for the playoffs, the Reds died with nothing but a couple of late-game whimpers.
After sledgehammering the Reds with five homers in Game 1, the Dodgers sliced the Reds in Game 2 with paper cuts.
They had 13 hits, eight singles and five doubles — three doubles and a single by shortstop Mookie Betts that produced three RBI.
After falling behind 8-0 in Game 1, the Reds rallied for five late runs, three in the eighth to come back to within 8-5, but left the bases loaded and lost, 10-5.
The Reds took a 2-0 lead in the first inning in Game 2, then fell behind 8-2 before once again rallying in the eighth for two runs and once again left the bases loaded.
For the two games, Betts was 6 for 9 with three doubles, three RBI, a run scored and a walk. And he was complimentary about the Reds.
Asked if the Reds made the Dodgers work late in the game, he told reporters after the game, “Yeah, they did. They really did. It was kinda neat to watch them come from behind to make the playoffs. We knew they were coming in hungry, but fortunately we took care of it.”
Manager Tito Francona had a message for his team before they put the uniforms into mothballs until next spring.
“I told our guys after the game we need to do some things better, myself included,” he said. “I would never ask them to try to get better and I’m gonna just sit at home. I’ll look in the mirror, too. That’s what we’re supposed to do.”
Francona, of course, hated absorbing the two defeats, but gave credit for his team’s late-game gumption both nights.
And he was delighted with the way the team reacted to him during his first season.
“Every time I asked them to do something, they tried to do it, which isn’t always the case,” he said. “They put the ball club ahead of themselves and that doesn’t always happen, either.
“We’re not the finished product, but they competed like crazy and that’s what we asked them to do,” he added. “When things didn’t look very good, they kept competing. Even the last couple of nights — we’re getting our ass handed to us, but they kept going and that’s a key trait.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
One of the offseason projects is 21-year-old rookie Sal Stewart, a late-season call-up. He drove in three of the team’s four runs Wednesday, but also made a throwing error while playing first base.
“We felt like we had a pretty good idea about this kid,” said Francona. “His off-season is going to be really important. There is so much to love about him, but there’s also things he needs to get better at, defensively and things like that.
“If he’s willing to buy in and I feel he is because he wants to be good, there is a very special player there,” he added.
The Reds scored two runs in the first inning off L.A. ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, both unearned. After a long run, right fielder Teoscar Hernandez dropped a fly ball at the foul line hit by Austin Hays.
It would have been the third out with no runs, but instead put runners on third and second and Stewart singled them home for the 2-0 Reds lead.
After Stewart’s hit, though, Yamamoto retired 13 straight.
The Dodgers scored three runs off starter Zack Littell and led, 3-2, when the Reds came to bat in the sixth inning. They ended Yamamotos’s 13 straight outs with three straight singles by TJ Friedl, Spencer Steer and Gavin Lux.
That filled the bases with no outs, a chance for the Reds to grab the lead. But they didn’t score.
Betts threw Friedl out at home on a ground ball and Yamamoto struck out Stewart on a pitch far out of the strike zone and struck out Elly De La Cruz.
De La Cruz was 0 for 6 with four strikeouts and two walks for the two games.
Yamamoto has more tools than a hardware store and pitched 6 2/3 innings, a career-most 113 pitches, and didn’t give up an earned run while giving up four hits, two walks and striking out nine.
The Reds were down 8-2 entering the eighth and scored two runs on a Stewart single and Tyler Stephenson’s sacrifice fly.
After Stephenson’s sacrifice fly, LA’s Emmet Shannon was 1-and-2 on Will Benson. Strangely, even though Shannon was ahead 1-and-2, LA manager Dave Roberts removed him.
Left-hander Alex Vesia replaced him and Francona sent up Miguel Andujar to bat for Benson. Andujar swung at the first pitch that was about eye-high and struck out. And the strikeout goes on Benson’s record.
Matt McLain then walked and the Reds had the bases loaded with two outs and suddenly TJ Friedl was the tying run. Vesia struck him out.
During the game Francona ordered intentional walks three times and got burned twice. He intentionally walked Freddie Freeman in the sixth and the next hitter, Teoscar Hernandez, singled home two runs on the next pitch.
He intentionally walked Shohei Ohtani in the seventh and Betts followed with a full-count run-scoring double.
So while the Dodgers fly to Philadelphia for the National League Division Series, the Reds flew back to Cincinnati to a dark Great American Ball Park.
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