The Cincinnati Reds ended a long losing streak to Los Angeles on Wednesday night. The pitching got the job done and the offense showed up beyond Elly De La Cruz – who homered in the game – for the first time in a while as they beat the Dodgers 6-2.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Dodgers (92-60) | 2 | 7 | 0 |
| Cincinnati Reds (71-81) | 6 | 13 | 0 |
| W: Antone (3-2) L: Halvorsen (1-2) | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
The top of the 1st inning didn’t go smoothly for the Reds and Andrew Abbott as the Dodgers got a single and then two walks to load the bases up. Abbott was able to wiggle out of the jam when the 28th pitch of the inning was lined into center but right at Dane Myers. The bottom of the 1st inning saw Sal Stewart pick up a single but then be picked off to end the inning.
When the bottom of the 2nd inning rolled around it was not Blake Snell taking the mound. Later in the game it would be announced he had to exit the game with a tight groin. This would turn things into a bullpen game for Los Angeles. Blake Treinen was first out of the bullpen for the Dodgers and he didn’t have the smoothest inning, but he got some help from his defense to avoid any runs.
Los Angeles would take the lead in the top of the 3rd after Mookie Betts singled with one out and then scored on a double by Will Smith into right-center. The bottom of the inning saw Jose Trevino single to lead off the inning. With two outs it was Elly De La Cruz providing the fireworks once again as he hit a line drive into the seats in right field to give the Reds a 2-1 lead.
That’s where the score remained until the 5th inning. Dane Myers, facing off against Bobby Mill, hit solo home run into the first row of seats in right-center to push the lead to two runs. The Dodgers would get that run back in the top of the 6th against Julian Garcia after he gave up back-to-back singles and then a walk with one out to load the bases. Tommy Edman grounded out to first but it did bring in a run.
Cincinnati turned right around and built themselves a 2-run lead again when Juan Brito would hit a little flare into shallow right field with runners on the corners, plating Sal Stewart and moving Tyler Stephenson over to third base with just one out. that was all they would get in the inning. They would add on again in the 7th against Jack Dreyer. Matt McLain doubled to start the inning and then score third base. Elly De La Cruz was intentionally walked. Then Sal Stewart hit a chopper to shortstop that Mookie Betts couldn’t come up with cleanly – ruled a base hit off of his glove – that brought in McLain. TJ Friedl would single in another run, but at the tail end of the play Stewart was thrown out at the plate to end the inning, but not before it was 6-2 in favor of the Reds.
Still holding onto a 4-run lead and heading to the 9th inning, Cincinnati sent closer Emilio Pagan to the mound looking to secure the first win of the year against Los Angeles. Mookie Betts led off the inning with a single into center. Pagan would rebound and strike out the next three batters to end the game and give the Reds a chance to earn a split in the series in tomorrow’s game.
Key Moment of the Game
Blake Snell not being able to return after the 1st inning. He had been absolutely dominant this season when healthy and his injury led to the Reds getting a chance to see most of the Dodgers bullpen and they went to work against those guys.
Notes Worth Noting
Elly De La Cruz extended his on-base streak to 23 games. He’s hit .424/.480/.793 during that run. He’s had 10 doubles and eight home runs to go along with 23 runs scored and 17 RBI.
Sal Stewart and Juan Brito both had three hits in the game. Brito is now hitting .406/.429/.656 in his 11 games since his promotion to Cincinnati.
Emilio Pagan has a 2.10 ERA in the 27 games since he returned from the injured list in July.
The Reds had lost 10 games in a row to the Dodgers, including the playoffs, before Wednesday night’s win.
Los Angeles went 0-11 with runners in scoring position. The Reds went 4-14.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
Los Angeles Dodgers vs Cincinnati Reds
Thursday September 17th, 12:40pm ET
TBA vs Brady Singer (6-14, 5.38 ERA)
Phew … now we can spend a whole day not deciding how to skewer the front office.
Plus, this will be the catalyst for the Reds to stay in Cincinnati! Until we get a losing streak again.
Good team W. Decent start by Abbott. Good work by all of the relievers.
4 HITS from the sixth batter in lineup. Three by Brito, one by Friedl.
Reds now at 202 HR on the season.
Glad to see Sal break the RBI drought. Hope he finishes strongly to wrap up the ROY award.
Elly will be getting some MVP votes.
I don’t know, Chris. The Reds are only 64-69 this season when Elly plays. ?. He should probably get NL player of the month if he keeps this up though!
Not some. He is likely THE Reds MVP in 2026. He already got MVP votes in 2024 and 2025 so that would be nothing new.
He could stand to improve his defense a little bit. The Reds 3B ranks 1st among active 3B in fielding % and 2nd for his career (Brooks Robinson ranks 5th in that category and Nolan Arenado ranks 4th) in fielding % by 3B.
Maybe some of that could rub off on Elly.
Likely the Reds MVP? No one else should be in the conversation. For as good as Chase Burns has been he hasn’t been nearly as good as Elly has.
Sal Stewart not in consideration as Reds MVP?
I don’t think Stewart should be. Elly De La Cruz has 6.1 WAR this season, which is third most in all of baseball among position players. Sal Stewart ranks 87th with 2.5 WAR. Even if we want to give Stewart some credit for his clutchiness, he’s not making up that difference or anything remotely close to it.
That said I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the players on the team vote for Sal. They’re allowed to be wrong and I expect some of them to be.
Hayes has been outstanding defensively for his career, but this year, he’s only eighth among players with 500 innings at 3B. His range and arm strength are down noticeably this season. He’s been good, but certainly not great defensively this season.
Oldtimer wins the season RLN thread. Finding a way in every post to rage bait about how good Ke Bryan Hayes is, is literally the only reason to follow this team or thread.
So good dude, keep it up.
IMO, Elly’s defensive skills and stardom would fully bloom in the outfield. He’s just a little too tall for shortstop, IMO.
It’s hard to compare pitchers to hitters, but I don’t agree that Elly has been much better than Burns. Burns has been absolutely dominant for most of the season despite pitching for a team that hits and fields poorly.
@greenmtred
Absolutely agree. Burns has been nothing short of phenomenal. His maturation and knowledge of when/where with his pitches and location has been stellar. He knows the zone and pitches with conviction. He’s such a pleasure to watch.
“I don’t think Stewart should be. Elly De La Cruz has 6.1 WAR this season”
Witt still at 6.5 WAR. Elly catching him for second place.
Elly plays at a high level EVERY DAY. Burns can only toe the rubber once every 5 days.
Case closed.
That’s always been the argument, and it’s reasonable. It would probably be more accurate, though, to say that Elly plays every day. Like all players, he’s had plenty of games that weren’t especially good.
And this is likely a major reason why the Cy Young award came to exist at the league level.
No one beats the Reds 11 games in a road. The Reds are just too good for that to happen.
Juan Brito got 3 more hits. I wonder how games it would take for Hayes to get 3 hits?
The Reds are 48-37 when he plays. The Reds are 23-44 when he doesn’t.
Another useless stat you are doling out.
I have no idea why you constantly bring up that stat. It is entirely useless.
But just for fun I looked it up. The Reds are 32-36 in games he starts this year. I’ll never post this useless stat again but felt that maybe we should be a little more detailed about things.
So even THAT number (32-36) is better than when he doesn’t play at all (23-44).
I’ll do the math for you. 47% W-L when he starts. 34% W-L when he doesn’t play at all.
Exactly. Exhibit 1. Hayes came in as a pinch runner for Suarez tonight I think and the useless stat would count it that Reds win when Hayes ‘plays’
Hayes stayed in the game and played defense at 3B the last couple of innings. He wasn’t just a pinch runner. Next.
The word is in that the ‘hot corner’, if the Reds are going to be a winning team, should be occupied by a below .200 hitter.
It really isn’t useless if we consider the context: Hayes has generally been the reliable scapegoat for all that is wrong in a dreadful season. OT is just pointing out that blaming him is easy enough to be convenient, but too shallow to tell the story.
It is a useless stat and the only reason he keeps bringing it up is to antagonize people. He is only on here to rattle people’s cages and he tried all season to get to Dennis but Dennis wasn’t biting. He does the same thing if people spell names wrong or if people didn’t proofread what they wrote and he tries to goad them into something. So now he is moving on to the Hayes bashers and he is getting them to respond. People(myself included) need to just ignore him and he will go away. He is nothing but a troll,agitator or gadfly. He has no life and he has sunk to the level of a Baiter. There is no story here.
Hayes deserves all the criticism he gets. His defense is better than most granted. His offense is the worst in the league and has been for the last three years. It’s time to quit pretending that doesn’t matter. The Reds would likely have a better record had they been starting Geno at 3rd and left Hayes on the bench for late inning defensive substitution. Or DFA the guy and get a real MLB ballplayer. And no, it’s not limited to Hayes. They have a lot of dead wood on the roster. But realistically Hayes is an order of magnitude worse than Candelario. Maybe they should have kept CES and played him at 3rd. It seems to be working well for the Orioles.
The Reds are at or near the bottom of the league in both hitting and defense. They both matter. Geno was not hitting well at all for the first half of the season. He started hitting better when it was too late to matter. Hayes is having an historically bad year offensively and his defense is not up to his normal standard. I agree that he should not be starting, but OT’s point–and mine–is that singling him out as the cause of the Reds’ awful season is both lazy and misleading.
The usual crowd of axe-grinders can’t accept the flaw in their reasoning. I get it.
But, you can’t insist the Reds can’t afford to have his bat in the lineup because it is costing them wins, then continue to ignore Oldtimer’s point.
His terrible BA simply hasn’t had the impact on the team’s lack of run production some would claim.
No one is singling out Hayes. He’s simply the most expensive of the Reds many failures. And this failure is owned lock, stock, and barrel by Krall. He’s shown time and again that he’s not up to running a professional organization. As for ignoring OT’s point? The record with Hayes in the lineup is irrelevant and non-casual. Only someone innumerate would argue differently. Further as I have noted previously, statistics has shown repeatedly that a good offensive player is far more important that a good defensive player.
Sometimes you wonder…..lol
I would really like to see Elly pad his stats these last games. Forget 30/30… let’s try for 35/35.
Steal sign evey time he gets on.
Burleson 111 RBIs, Stewart 108, Crow-Armstrong 105…Watch out for Crow Armstrong to maybe make a late run for the RBI crown. I think a big weekend in that race for Stewart to maybe get back in track, as feels like the Reds can hit Cubs pitching a little better, so hoping for some big RBI games for Stewart.
My guess is that Burleson will hold on, but hoping Stewart has one more push in him.
Britto looks like the replacement for McLain for 2027. Maybe way too small a sample, but he looks pretty comfortable on Defense and Hitting.
Heard a couple analysts on Sirius MLB Radio earlier today talking about how disappointing a year this was for the Reds among other teams such as the Giants also…but a few of their points were they think the Reds overvalued their younger position player group such as McLain, Steer and others…and also how the Starting Pitching doesn’t look as good moving forward.
The consensus I think among many fans, experts, analysts, is that the Reds are a ways a way from really being good. Hopefully the organization considers this and comes up with a pretty different plan heading forward whether it’s a rebuild, or bigtime trades and free agent movement to try and build around Elly, Sal, Burns, etc. for the 2-3 years they’d still have Elly.
I am always happy when we beat the Dodgers but did we REALLY beat them? Or did Tito give Dave Roberts a call last night and ask him for a favor? Lol
Pulled groin in 100 degree heat? C’ mon
The starting pitching depth of the Dodgers is unreal. I feel like it’s maybe the single biggest thing they count on in the playoffs. All their expensive ace starters miss time every year, but then get healthy for a stretch run and are all rested up for October, while everyone else is running on fumes.
CES alert: 3-4 last night w/two 2B, HR, 3 R & 2 RBI. 277/326/520 in 173 AB w/Os this season.
Another Krall masterclass.
Watched that HR on ESPN. My point at the time is his success due to a mechanical change or being injury free and given a chance.
CES’s advanced metrics were not much better than with the Reds the last I saw them posted anywhere.
There have always been free swingers and bad ball hitters. Some do well enough to hang around or even better. Time will tell with CES.
Another thing to note about him is that hand and wrist injuries don’t catch the headlines like shoulder and elbow injuries, but many guys never fully come back to what they were before them. So, maybe he has recovered or discovered something to help him get untracked from his.
What a shame we let him go. And he can play third. Geez.
Thrilled for CES and he’s gotta be ecstatic with his opportunity to shine. I hope he continues to rake.
The Dodger Dynasty is dead and all is right with the world.
Although, I’m still picking him to hang another WS banner this year.
Fan Appreciation day is this Sunday. I hope Reds fans give a standing ovation to Geno Suarez and TJ Friedl who have been very good Reds who in all likelihood will not wear the uniform again. Stephenson as well, although I think there is still a path to signing him back on a FA deal.
Geno is one of the Reds Greatest players , is very classy, and will be in the Reds HOF
Friedl had several very good years, always played hard and represented himself and the team and the city in a great way.
Stephenson has had one of the better runs as a Reds catcher for 6 years since…..since…arguably Bench. He’s better than Tucker Barnhart, Mesoraco was hurt and had one great year maybe 2 and Joe Oliver wasn’t the hitter that Stephenson has been. Reds just havent had a great catcher for an extended 7-9 year run in decades.
Well said. 3 classy players who were consummate teammates.
The Reds have an option to exercise on Eugenio Suarez. I think they should exercise it bring him back next year.
Where else are they going to get 30 HR, etc., for $15 million?
I agree this seems logical enough but the Reds are the Reds, and there is what the Reds owners are hoping will be a business changing lockout/ new CBA in the works.
Also, it is a mutual option, but with no buyout if he walks away attached, it does not seem like Suarez would decline.
Eddie Taubensee was a pretty good hitting catcher, but I know that was a few years further back. Great ’99 season and then he got hurt.
With 10 games to go, can the Reds win at least 2 of them and avoid 90 losses?
I’m guessing…. Probably.
That’s called “Having realistic goals.”
During this 28-game stretch from the devil, they have gone 8-10 so far. I cannot imagine them not winning 2 games. But stranger things have happened.
They even made a whole series about it!
And there are more than one demogorgon, although the one in LA is demonstrably greater than the others.
Elly De La Cruz is on another level mid August on. Just imagine if Reds were chasing a playoff spot. Seems like Reds are wasting his talent. Stewart’s as well even though he is a rookie.
I have no faith in Reds ownership or upper management. Rinse and repeat. Sadly
Presently tied for 9th worst record. Here’s hoping whoever is in charge can conduct a decent draft next summer.
Nice to see Sal get a couple 2 strike knocks with defensive swings. I honestly can’t think of anyone else on the team who switches to their B or C swing with 2 strikes. Everyone else still tries to get their A swing off even in those counts. That has to be partly on the coaches and speaks volumes about why this offense struggles so much with strikeouts. Ten years ago this mindset was still the standard in the game ever since the steroid era, but you only have to watch the Brewers and Dodgers put the ball in play with 2 strikes to understand the most forward thinking and successful teams have changed their philosophy.
How is it possible Trevino (.559 OPS) only has 1 walk all year?? Gheesh. Duno can’t be ready fast enough.
Will we see Pagan pick up his $10mil player option and stay with the team? I bet he does.
I’d like to see the Reds take a flyer on Ryan Ward whom the Dodgers recently DFAd.
He’s older (28) and limited, but will most likely be a strong platoon player vs RH for LF/1B/DH.
He’s posted a .259/.344/.491/.836 line at AAA with 108 HR in 2261 PA and 22.2% K% with 11.25 BB%.
A letter to Redlegnation and Doug Gray:
As a lifelong Reds fan, I enjoy the community that is RLN and have been a regular contributor for nearly a decade. I am not right all time and freely admit it. I once said the Reds should sign Nick Senzel to a long term contract. I really liked Jesse Winker.
I also was so hyped as a Reds fan I bought a Topps rookie minted 9 grade card for my son who wasnt yet born because I believed so strongly this Reds prospect was going to be good. Turns out Joey Votto was and I still have that card.
It’s been a rough decade and a rough year. Sadly, the Reds arent making the playoffs and will likely finish last in the NL Central as we all face a cold nuclear winter and maybe a nuclear spring…..SIgh.
Can we all stop arguing about Ke’bryan Hayes though? Hes bad. We should all agree he is bad except 3 people. Move forward. How to be improve. ( YES, fire the owners and FO and blow up the MLB system….none of which is happening)
We are all 9 games away from a nuclear winter. Doug has a great website. The Reds are going to send off potentially some good guys on Sunday to never wear the uniform again.
Can we finish this season not wallowing in the gutter about Ke’bryan Hayes? We can all agree he is not part of the solution. So let’s move forward and focus on the few positives . Elly, Burnes, Sal ROY.
Thanks Doug for your forum!
“Can we finish this season not wallowing in the gutter about Ke’bryan Hayes?”
Good letter but I have to say ignoring KBH, arguably the worst hitter in the majors, while he is still on the roster is like ignoring a “dirty elephant in the snow”. 😀 It’s nearly impossible.
No one is ignoring.,
Intelligent Reds fans are moving forward from the abyss. Hayes discourse is the abyss. Hayes is the abyss.
Move on.
old-school – I’d like to. As soon as the Reds will I will. Promise. 🙂
Yep, K’BH has birthed some trolling on RLN, and it would be great to see the obviously provocative and certainly repetitive statements stop. I couldn’t agree more.