The Cincinnati Reds season came to an end on Wednesday night in Los Angeles. The Reds had chances and could not come through with them, while the Dodgers seemed to capitalize on plenty of their opportunities given to them as they pulled out an 8-4 win to sweep the series and move on in the playoffs.
| Final | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cincinnati Reds (0-2) | 4 | 6 | 1 |
| Los Angeles Dodgers (2-0) | 8 | 13 | 3 |
| W: Yamamoto L: Littell | |||
| Statcast | Box Score | Game Thread | |||
On a day when the previous three games all saw the team who lost game one prevail in game two, Cincinnati was able to apply early pressure on Los Angeles with the help from the Dodgers. Spencer Steer got a 1st inning rally started when he was hit by a pitch. Gavin Lux hit a weak grounder to second base that led to a force out. Austin Hays then hit a looping fly down the right field line, but Enrique Hernandez had it clank off of his glove and then roll into foul territory that allowed Lux to get to third and Hays to second base. That brought Sal Stewart to the plate and he hit the ball just hard enough and at just the right angle to get his chopping grounder by a diving first baseman and into right field for a 2-run single to give the Reds the lead.
Zack Littell got Shohei Ohtani to ground out to lead off the bottom of the 1st, but then saw Mookie Betts double into left field. He would strand him there by striking out Freddie Freeman and then getting a fly out to end the inning.
The Dodgers would get things rolling in the 3rd inning when Ben Rortvedt doubled to start the inning. He would come around to score on a 1-out single by Mookie Betts that cut into the Reds lead. Matt McLain may have saved a run on a diving stop on a grounder that he was able to turn into an out on the next play. Littell would then get Teoscar Hernandez to ground out and end the frame and hold onto the lead.
In the 4th inning the Los Angeles offense got right back to it. Max Muncy led off with a single. He would then score on a 1-out double by Enrique Hernandez to tie the game up. Miguel Rojas then blooped a single into right field to plate the go-ahead run. That ended the day for Littell and saw Nick Lodolo enter the game from the bullpen. He’d give up a bunt single before getting fly outs from Shohei Ohtani and Mookie Betts to strand both runners and end the Dodgers rally.
The top of the 6th inning saw the Reds load the bases with no outs thanks to three straight singles. Austin Hays hit a soft liner to shortstop that Mookie Betts fielded on one bounce and threw home for a force out. Yoshinobu Yamamoto then struck out Sal Stewart and Elly De La Cruz as Cincinnati failed to produce a run in the inning and the Dodgers held onto their 1-run lead.
Nick Martinez took over for Nick Lodolo when the bottom of the 6th inning began. The Dodgers got a leadoff single when a weak grounder hit the third base bag as Ke’Bryan Hayes waited and hoped the ball would roll foul. Miguel Rojas then hit a hard grounder down the line but Sal Stewart made an impressive diving stop on it and turned it into an out. The next play was another hard grounder to Stewart at first, but this time he couldn’t complete the play as he threw the ball by a covering Martinez that put runners on the corners. Shohei Ohtani then singled into right to extend the Los Angeles lead to 4-2. Two pitches later Mookie Betts doubled into left field to bring in another run.
That led to a mound visit by pitching coach Derek Johnson. While we don’t know what was discussed, the plan itself involved intentionally walking Freddie Freeman to load the bases to face Teoscar Hernandez in order to get a righty-on-righty matchup. He would double on the first pitch he saw to drive in two runs and make it 7-2.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto returned to the mound in the 7th as Dave Roberts wanted to avoid using his bullpen even with a big lead. After he got a groundout to begin the inning he would sandwich walks around a strikeout to put two runners on for Cincinnati. The Dodgers then went to the bullpen to bring in Blake Treinen and he needed just two pitches to get a groundout to end the inning.
Tony Santillan recorded the final two outs of the 6th and then returned to the mound in the 7th. He’d give up a single to start the inning, intentionally walk Shohei Ohtani with one out, then give up an RBI double to Mookie Betts as the Dodgers extended their lead to 8-2. Chase Burns then entered the game and got back-to-back groundouts to strand runners on second and third.
Cincinnati would rally in the 8th inning. Gavin Lux would single and Austin Hays followed with a walk. Sal Stewart then singled into right field to bring in a run. Elly De La Cruz then followed up with a walk to load the bases. Tyler Stephenson hit a sacrifice fly to plate the Reds second run of the inning and pull the team into slam range.
Will Benson stepped to the plate and after Emmet Sheehan almost hit him with a pitch, Dave Roberts walked to the mound and pulled him in the middle of the at-bat to bring in lefty Alex Vesia. Terry Francona countered by sending Miguel Andujar to the plate for Benson, but he would strike out. Matt McLain then walked to load the bases once again and turn the lineup over to bring TJ Friedl to the plate. A 7-pitch battle ended with Friedl taking a slider on the outside corner for strike three.
Chase Burns kept the Dodgers off the board in the 8th, sending the game to the final inning unless the Reds could extend the game. The Dodgers sent Roki Sasaki to the mound and he struck out the first two batters. Austin Hays popped up in foul territory on the second pitch he saw, but catcher Ben Rortvedt dropped it and kept the game alive. It didn’t remain that way for long as Hays hit a soft line drive to Mookie Betts to end the game and in the process the Cincinnati Reds 2025 season.
Key Moment of the Game
Was it when the Reds had the bases loaded and no outs and couldn’t score?
Was it when Nick Lodolo had recorded five outs on 14 pitches and was pulled from the game only to see Nick Martinez come in and give up four runs before he was pulled from the game?
Maybe it was leaving Zack Littell in for the 4th inning where he gave up two runs before then deciding to go to the bullpen?
Notes Worth Noting
The Reds went 3-10 with runners in scoring position. The Dodgers went 6-18.
Cincinnati didn’t have a single extra-base hit in the game. The Dodgers had five.
The Reds had two players with multi-hit games (Gavin Lux and Sal Stewart each had two hits). Los Angeles had four players with multi-hit games, including a 4-hit day from Mookie Betts who also accounted for three doubles and three runs batted in.
Reds pitchers intentionally walked as many hitters in the game as they had strikeouts – three. The Dodgers pitchers combined for 13 strikeouts in the game.
The loss was the 8th in a row in the playoffs for the Reds organization. With the series loss it extends the longest non-advancement in the playoffs drought in North American professional spots with Cincinnati still looking at 1995 when the Reds moved on beyond the first round. It is the longest losing streak in franchise history during the playoffs.
Since 2013 the Dodgers have now won 66 playoff games. The Reds have won zero.
As a non-game related note – just wanted to say thanks to everyone for stopping by during the season and by-and-overwhelmingly-large conducting yourselves very well in the comments section. Our coverage won’t stop here at Redleg Nation because the season is over, so we hope you don’t stop coming by each day to see what we’re writing about, discussing, breaking down, covering. We’ve got plenty of offseason plans. We just weren’t hoping to start them in the first week of October.
Up Next for the Cincinnati Reds
The offseason where they can hopefully improve this ball club.
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