Over the last few days, as his club’s offensive downturn bled into a second week, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts maintained that the drought was an anomaly. He called it a funk. He said all teams, even World Series favorites, endure lulls and the Dodgers are too talented, even with Cody Bellinger on the injured list, to have this continue for long.
On Tuesday night, the Dodgers proved Roberts right. It wasn’t an outburst, but they mustered timely hits and scored five runs — just the third time they reached that total over the last 10 games — against the Cincinnati Reds.
But the pitching faltered and the production wasn’t enough in a 6-5 loss. The Dodgers (15-9) have lost three straight games for the first time since August2019 and seven of nine games after starting the season 13-2.
Walker Buehler posted 10 strikeouts to one walk over 61/3 innings but was charged with a season-high five runs on seven hits.
Jesse Winker supplied the go-ahead home run in the 10th inning in Monday night’s series opener. On Tuesday, he smashed the first pitch of the game, a 95-mph fastball from Buehler, for a leadoff home run.
Buehler quickly recovered. He struck out the next three batters and retired the next nine hitters in a row. Nick Castellanos doubled and Joey Votto walked to begin the fourth inning, but Buehler stranded the runners.
He emerged with eight strikeouts through four innings but still trailing 1-0.
That changed in the bottom of the inning. Justin Turner and Max Muncy worked back-to-back walks to start the sequence after working consecutive walks in the first inning. Will Smith followed the first time with a flyout against Reds right-hander Jeff Hoffman. The second time, he crushed a three-run home run for the Dodgers’ first hit and lead.
The seesaw continued in Cincinnati’s two-run fifth inning, capped by a first-pitch RBI single from Winker. An inning later, Matt Beaty bounced a two-run single to right field through a drawn-in infield to put the Dodgers ahead again.
The Reds (11-12) connected with the next haymaker in the seventh inning when Joey Votto, the aging former perennial most-valuable-player candidate, smacked a 3-2, two-out, two-run double off left-hander Scott Alexander. Votto had been in a two-for-26 slump. His line drive gave the Reds, losers of seven straight games before arriving in Los Angeles, another lead for good.
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