Reds 3, Dodgers 1: Dominated by Luis Castillo and old friend Kyle Farmer

Winners of six in a row on a perfect homestand, the Dodgers started their important road trip by laying an egg against the Reds in a 3-1 loss.

There were barely any highlights, honestly.

——

Walker Buehler started well, not allowing a RISP over his first four innings, but things quickly went downhill in the 5th. Facing probably the two worst hitters in the Reds lineup, Buehler allowed a lead-off double to old friend Kyle Farmer and a single to Tucker Barnhart to put the Reds up 1-0. The 6th saw further trouble as back-to-back singles were cashed in by another double from Farmer that drove in both runners and increased the lead to 3-0.

A bit unfair to put it this way, but the outing probably does hurt his chances at awards: 6 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 2 BB, 5 K, 95 Pitches.

Corey Knebel and Brusdar Graterol got scoreless frames in the 7th and 8th in relief, but it didn’t mean much.

The reason that 0 was on the board for most of the game was Luis Castillo, who has turned it on in recent months after a rough start to his 2021. The Dodgers did have some quality scoring chances like a lead-off double in the 1st and back-to-back singles in the 6th, but nothing came of the chances.

Worse yet, in the 7th and 8th, the Dodgers hit three balls to the warning track off reliever Luis Cessa and got nothing to show for it. Michael Lorenzen hit Will Smith to start the 9th and eventually he scored on a Matt Beaty single to make it 3-1, but all that did is ruin the shutout.

Uh … that’s about it.

You know a game is good when the official account goes from it's time for Dodger baseball to the score in consecutive tweets.

— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) September 18, 2021

——

94-54 and 1.5 games back of the Giants in the NL West, risking basically ruining two good days with this if the Giants win.

Tomorrow at 8:10 AM HT/11:10 AM PT/1:10 PM ET with Max Scherzer looking to give the Dodgers a boost against Sonny Gray.