Reds 9, Dodgers 2: Pedro Baez Struck Out The Side

The suddenly red-hot Reds continued their streak of quality play by beating the Dodgers, 9-2. That’s two in a row for the Dodgers to the Phillies and Reds, which has to be less than ideal. Then again, it seems like they’ve done this all season, where the result is not so much about quality of competition and more just about the Dodgers execution themselves.

Anyway, everything about this game sucked.

Bud Norris … boy this wasn’t an ideal return from the disabled list, huh? The first three batters of the game hurt my feels very much by going walk, single, and Joey Votto hitting a big-time dong to center.

PROMISING!

Yet amazingly that wasn’t even the worst part of the game, because Dave Roberts opted to walk Tucker Barnhart intentionally with two down to put runners on the corners for the pitcher, and the pitcher responded by destroying an 0-2 fastball at his shoulders into the right-center field gap for two runs. That was one of those hits where you just go, “Ah, fuck this.”

Anyway, Norris took 94 pitches to get through just 3.2 innings. He gave up six runs on seven hits and four walks on the night, not exactly making the ideal return to the rotation.

As far as why this game wasn’t ever close, it seems obvious that the offense didn’t put it all together. But while their unclutchness definitely permeated this game (1-for-15 with RISP), they actually did a lot better than the scoreline suggests.

Sure sure, results are all that matter in the end, but it’s understandably frustrating when Yasmani Grandal flies out to the warning track a foot short of the wall twice and Justin Turner does the same to the deepest part of center. And yet, for all the hard contact, all the Dodgers had to show for it is two runs — one coming on a Corey Seager single that scored Rob Segedin, and one coming on an A.J. Ellis ground out to score Seager. Two runs on 10 hits (one triple, one double) and five walks is less than ideal.

So what about the bullpen?!

Well, Jesse Chavez continues his run of usefulness by going 1.1 shutout innings, and J.P. Howell followed that with a scoreless frame of his own.

Also, Pedro Baez struck out the side in his inning!

…

Also, he may have allowed a three-run homer to a relief pitcher in Michael Lorenzen or something, but there’s no evidence of that.

At least Adam Liberatore returned from the disabled list and pitched a scoreless frame.

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The Dodgers loss drops them to 67-54 on the year and a thoroughly mediocre 29-30 away from home. The NL West is currently tied up, but the Giants play later today with first place at stake.

Tomorrow night the Dodgers play the Reds again at 1:10 PM HST/4:10 PM PST/7:10 PM EST, with the pitching matchup being Brett Anderson (45.00 ERA/32.19 FIP/5.58 DRA) against Brandon Finnegan (4.54/5.85/6.34).