Cincinnati Reds disappointing season continues with another blowout loss to the Dodgers
Eight months ago, when the Los Angeles Dodgers faced the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park in September, it was one of the most high-stakes regular season series that the Reds have had in the last 10 years.
The Reds were still six games above .500 at that time and squarely in the mix for the second wild card spot. When Luis Castillo pitched a gem for the Reds in the series opener, a few players mentioned after the game how the series could have been foreshadowing a future matchup in the postseason.
The Dodgers returned to Great American Ball Park again this week, and this time they swept the Reds. On Thursday, Los Angeles beat Cincinnati, 10-5, in front of a crowd of 21,989.
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“The whole point is to win the game,” Reds manager David Bell said. “There’s nothing ok about losing. There’s a lot of people in this clubhouse that are here to win. We’ve experienced it, we know what it looks like, we know how to do it. It’s really the only thought.”
The Reds haven’t beaten the Dodgers in any of the nine games since Castillo made that spectacular start last September. During the offseason, the Dodgers signed former MVP first baseman Freddie Freeman to a $162 million contract while the Reds parted ways with five former All-Stars. The Dodgers now have the second-best record in the National League in 2022, and the Reds have the worst.
Freeman has carried the Dodgers offense in all seven wins over the Reds this season. Following his two-run homer, Freeman picked up his 13th RBI versus the Reds in 2022. At that point, the Reds had only scored 13 runs against the Dodgers all season.
The Dodgers’ stacked lineup, filled with some of the most disciplined hitters in MLB, made Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene run a high pitch count on Thursday as he allowed six runs in five innings on 98 pitches. In the second inning, the Dodgers loaded the bases and scored on the following sequence: single (seven-pitch at-bat), double (three-pitch at-bat), walk (nine-pitch at-bat), sacrifice fly.
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After the fourth inning, Greene spoke with the umpire about the strike zone as he walked to the dugout. Bell also chimed in before the next inning started.
"I felt like (the umpire) wasn’t giving me pitches on the corner," Greene said. "I always like to stay within myself. I think that was the first time I’ve ever addressed an umpire so far in my career. It was tough not getting pitches I thought I should have got. I voiced that and let him know how I felt."
In the third inning, Dodgers catcher Austin Barnes drew another walk versus Greene. Two batters later, Freeman gave the Dodgers a 3-0 lead with a 427-foot home run, his longest of the season.
Dodgers center fielder Cody Bellinger hit a two-run homer in a 3-0 count in the fourth inning, which gave the Dodgers a 5-0 lead. Greene allowed a third home run in the fifth inning, and he now has allowed the most home runs in MLB this season with 20.
"You have guys that have 10 years of playing and 10 years of experience on you," Greene said. "I understand that not a lot of people want to hear that, they want to see results. I want to see results too. That’s just the reality. When you put experience together with talent, you’re pretty good. For me, I’ve got to continue to experience the game. I like to think I have all of the talent in the world. That will only get you so far in this game."
"He's close, man," Reds left fielder Tommy Pham said. "So close. So close, you see it. You see the ability. It's just part of this process. As a young player like him, you have those bumps in the road. All he can do is learn from every outing and continue to work on getting better."
Los Angeles deployed one of the best starting rotations in baseball and shut down the Reds offense in all three games in this series. Clayton Kershaw allowed only one run in six innings on Thursday, and he left the game with a 2.00 ERA on the season.
In the first two games of the series, the Reds got solid but unspectacular starts and then saw the Dodgers blow the game open against the Reds bullpen. In the series finale, Greene made his worst start of the season since May 5 as he struggled throwing consistent strikes early in counts. Pham homered in a four-run seventh inning for the Reds to cut the deficit to 8-5, but it didn’t get any closer.
In the first game of the series, the Reds were set back by defensive mistakes. In the last two games of the series, the offense couldn’t take advantage of opportunities because runners were thrown out on the bases. The Dodgers had 42 hits in the three-game series, and the Reds had only 25.
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As the Reds extended their losing streak to seven games, Bell stressed the importance of keeping a competitive mindset.
“We’ve talked about developing players and developing people,” Bell said. “We’re all very passionate about that. But we’re here to win. That’s the fun part. That’s what it’s all about. Nothing about how you lose whether it’s a close game or not is acceptable. It’s not.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Reds have worst record in NL with blowout loss to the Dodgers
