More accurately, they drew a blank out of the right hand of Emmet Sheehan, a lower-tier pitcher in the Dodgers’ rotation.
He played three-card monte with the Reds with his career-best performance, seven innings for the first time in the big leagues.
Sheehan emptied his gym bag full of tricks to hold the catatonic Reds to a pair of singles while striking out 10.
For the night, the Reds produced three harmless singles, never put a runner on third base and went 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.
It was the 44th time this season they scored two or fewer runs and they suffered their 11th shutout loss.
With New York’s 13-3 win over Philadelphia, the Reds once again fell 2 1/2 games behind the Mets in the wild card argument.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Cincinnati starter Hunter Greene grew up 15 miles from Dodger Stadium and was clearly amped up. His first two pitches to LA leadoff hitter Shohei Ohtani were clocked at 101 miles an hour and the third was 102.
He retired six of the first seven Dodgers, then No. 8 hitter Andy Pages began his night of productivity. He may bat eighth, but he swings a hefty bat.
He began the game with 21 home runs. Now he has 23.
He led the third inning by pulling Greene’s 91 miles an hour slider over the left field fence.
It was still 1-0 in the fifth when Pages came up again, this time with a runner on second.
Greene threw him the same pitch, a 91 miles an hour slider, and Pages did the same thing with it, a home run over the left field fence and it was 3-0.
It was still 3-0 when Pages came to bat in sixth. The bases were loaded with no outs with Scott Barlow on the mound. He struck out Alex Freeman and Michael Conforto, one out away from escaping.
Pages hit a ball right at shortstop Elly De La Cruz and he did an excellent imitation of croquet. The ground ball that should have been the third out and kept the score at 3-0 rolled between De La Cruz’s legs, his league-leading 20th error, and two runs scored to push LA’s lead to 5-0.
“Yeah, Barlow was real close to wiggling out of that,” Reds manager Tito Francona told reporters after the game. “We got the ground ball that went under Elly’s glove (and through his legs). When they spread it out there (from 3-0 to 5-0) that made it a whole lot tougher.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“Man, they just keep coming at you,” he added. He could have added especially in Dodger Stadium where they are 42-24 and average 5 1/2 runs per game.
Just to make it a memorable night for Pages, his sacrifice fly in the eighth gave him four RBI plus the two that scored on the De La Cruz muff.
What the Reds needed, it seemed, was a couple more spoonful’s of Wheaties for breakfast. Early in the game they hit four balls that were close to home runs, but all four were caught with Dodger bodies against the fences and walls.
In the second inning, Conforto jumped at the wall and snagged Spencer Steer’s ball off the top of the fence.
The next batter, Ke’Bryan Hayes, drilled one into the right field corner that Teoscar Hernandez chased down in front of the low fence.
Leading off the next inning, the third, Jose Trevino crushed one to the warning track that Hernandez chased down and in the fourth Noelvi Marte drove one to the center fiaeld warning track that Pages outran to capture.
“I actually thought we hit some balls pretty good with nothing to show for it,” said Francona.
Francon must be getting weary of answering questions about opposing pitchers, especially one that had given up nine runs in his previous two starts over 11 innings.
But he did it again, talking about a guy who missed all of last season after Tommy John surgery and began Monday’s game with a 4.17 earned run average.
“You know he had not just really good velocity, but crispness to his fastball and off-speed with it,” he said. “I just thought he was on his ‘A’ game tonight.”
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Greene pitched five-plus innings and gave up five runs (three earned), six hits and walked two. While his counterpart, not a strikeout pitcher, fanned 10, Greene, a strikeout pitcher, fanned only three.
“I thought maybe at times he was a little overamped and I get it,” said Francona, referring to Greene’s desire to do well in his hometown. “He made two pitches (to Pages) that cost him three runs.
“Two breaking balls. The first time he had him 0-and-2, missed with three fastballs, then threw a breaking ball over the middle of the plate,” he added.
The assignment Tuesday night is about 180 degrees more difficult. The Dodgers are sending Hall of Fame-bound left-hander Clayton Kershaw to the mound and he’ll take an 8-2 record with him.
NEXT GAME
Who: Cincinnati at L.A. Dodgers
When: 10:10 p.m.
TV: FanDuel Sports
Radio: 1410-AM, 700-AM
About the Author