Dodgers 14, Reds 1: Bats explode early to back Yamamoto’s 7 strong for 7 in a row, Josue De Paula is getting called up

It’s been rare that the Dodgers have won games in the last two-plus months where they’ve been able to cruise towards the end, but today they reminded us how nice it is by clobbering the Reds pitching early and keeping the pressure on throughout. All of that was to back the presumably grateful Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who cruised through seven strong for seven in a row thanks to an 14-1 blowout.

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Reds starter Rhett Lowder … did not have fun out there tonight.

Things started with a Reds highlight as a lead-off walk in the 1st was followed by Will Smith crushing a ball into the gap to the wall, but Carlos Jorge robbed him with a stellar catch to get Lowder through a scoreless inning.

Unfortunately for him, that loud contact was a sign of things to come. The 2nd started with back-to-back singles from Teoscar Hernandez and Kyle Tucker, and then a grounder from Hunter Feduccia was fielded by Sal Stewart, who tried to get Teoscar going back to third but a beauty of a hook slide saw him safe and the bases were loaded.

Unfortunately, that only led to one run via an Alex Freeland double play, and it was just 1-0 Dodgers after the 2nd.

The 3rd is when the real fireworks began, as a one-out double from Will Smith was followed by Mookie Betts‘ 19th homer of the year to make it 3-0 Dodgers.

Notably, he destroyed a beer.

Things went similarly in the 4th, as Kyle Tucker doubled, Feduccia walked, and then a Alex Freeland double scored Tucker. Enrique Hernandez followed with a double of his own to plate Feduccia and Freeland, and it was 6-1 Dodgers.

After a groundout advanced Enrique to third, Lowder’s day was over.

Luis Mey entered and uncorked a wild pitch to score Enrique, a Will Smith walk followed, Mookie Betts singled to put a pair on, and both advanced after another wild pitch. With two down, Teoscar Hernandez singled to score both Smith and Betts and make it 9-1 Dodgers before the rally ended.

In the 5th it was Julian Garcia, who got a scoreless inning with just a walk. Pierce Johnson took over in the 6th and the scoring resumed, as another Mookie single was followed by Max Muncy hitting his 27th homer of the year to make it 11-1 Dodgers.

Tony Santillan took over in the 7th and didn’t help, as a Freeland walk started things and Enrique Hernandez hit his third homer of the year to make it 13-1 Dodgers.

The 8th saw position player Jose Trevino take over, which saw Tucker smash his 13th homer of the year for his third hit of the game to make it 14-1 Dodgers.

Have a day?

At least it ended with a funny Freeland K.

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Oh right, the other side of things, but there wasn’t much going on as you could tell by the score. Yoshinobu Yamamoto was in complete control and was efficient to boot.

He gave up a two-out single in the 1st but picked that off, and got a clean 2nd and 3rd with a pair of strikeouts in both innings. In the 4th, he gave up a one-out homer to — who else? — Elly De La Cruz for the Reds’ loan run, and also walked a batter with two outs, but that was it.

He was not happy.

No matter, he got clean innings in both the 5th and 6th, then pitched around a lead-off walk with two more strikeouts in the 7th.

Maybe could’ve gone another if it mattered, but it was a blowout: 7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 10 K, 90 Pitches.

To finish things off, Blake Treinen got a scoreless 8th, giving up two singles, and Seth Halvorsen got a scoreless 9th despite allowing a single as well.

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Oh yeah, Josue De Paula is coming.

More on that tomorrow.

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NL SeedingRecordGB
Brewers91-56–
Dodgers89-571.5
Braves85-615.5

The Dodgers will get a day off tomorrow to travel to the East Coast for a three-game series against the Marlins starting at 1:10 PM HT/4:10 PM PT/7:10 PM ET. It’ll be Blake Snell up against Ryan Gusto.

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"A highly rational Internet troll." - Los Angeles Times