*Photo from the Los Angeles Times*
The Los Angeles Dodgers entered Wednesday afternoon's matchup with the Cincinnati Reds having lost 6 of their last 8 games, so they gave the ball to Clayton Kershaw. He dominated. Justin Turner homered, Matt Beaty drove in two runs, and the Dodgers shut out the Reds with an 8-0 win to avoid the sweep.
Chris Taylor scored on a Luke Raley ground out in the second inning to make it 1-0 Dodgers to start. In the 3rd, Turner hit a solo homer to left field to widen the lead to 2-0. It remained that way until the 8th. In that inning, Taylor hit an RBI triple, AJ Pollock hit an RBI single, Beaty hit a two run single, and Mookie Betts hit an RBI single, making it 8-0 Dodgers.
Taylor said of snapping the skid that "We know we’re not playing our best baseball right now. I think you can attribute it to a lot of different factors. The bottom line is we’re not playing up to our capabilities. There in the eighth inning, hopefully that can give us a little confidence and we’ll turn the page heading into this road trip."
Kershaw turned in a vintage Kershaw performance for the Dodgers, allowing no runs on 4 hits and one walk, striking out 8 hitters in 7 dominant innings pitched. After Kershaw departed, Blake Treinen, Garrett Cleavinger, and Dennis Santana combined to throw two innings of relief to shut the door on the Reds.
Kershaw said of his outing that "It was just good to get back in the win column. We’re scuffling a little bit and we wanted to end the homestand on a good note. It doesn’t feel good to lose three in a row. Our job as a starting pitcher is to always come out and give our team a chance and put up zeroes. That didn’t change today."
Sonny Gray took the loss for the Reds despite a solid performance, allowing two runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, racking up 11 strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings pitched. Ryan Hendriks finished the 6th after Gray departed, and then gave way to Amir Garrett in the 7th, and Sal Romano for 2/3 of the 8th. After the Dodgers exploded for 6 runs in the 8th, SS Alex Blandino came on to pitch for the last 1/3 of the inning.
Reds manager David Bell said of Gray's outing that "Gray really looked sharp and he looked really similar to what we've seen here in the last couple of years, which is really encouraging. He had the injury in Spring Training and sometimes it just takes a few starts to get back on track. So that was nice. I think today could really help him moving forward."
The Dodgers face the Milwaukee Brewers tonight, with Trevor Bauer starting for the Dodgers. The Reds start a series with the Chicago Cubs on Friday, with no starter announced yet.
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