The Dodgers turned a two-run game into a rout with six runs in the fourth inning Wednesday, beating Cincinnati 14–1 behind seven strong innings from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. Los Angeles hit four home runs, while Yamamoto struck out 10 and allowed only three hits.
Cincinnati briefly moved within 3–1 when Elly De La Cruz homered in the top of the fourth. The Dodgers answered in the bottom half with a rally built around doubles, a wild pitch and a two-run single. By the end of the inning, Los Angeles led 9–1 and had forced the Reds into their bullpen.
Alex Freeland doubled home Kyle Tucker to begin the fourth-inning scoring. Enrique Hernandez followed with a double that brought in Hunter Feduccia and Freeland. Hernandez then scored on a Luis Mey wild pitch, and Teoscar Hernandez drove in Will Smith and Mookie Betts with a single to left. Those six runs gave Yamamoto an eight-run cushion.
The Dodgers had scored first in the second inning when Teoscar Hernandez came home on Freeland’s double-play grounder. Betts added a two-run homer in the third. He finished 3 for 5 with three runs scored and two RBIs, contributing both before and during the inning that put the game out of Cincinnati’s reach.
Los Angeles kept adding after the fourth. Max Muncy hit a two-run homer in the sixth, Enrique Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the seventh, and Tucker supplied a solo shot in the eighth. Hernandez finished with four RBIs, while Tucker went 3 for 5 and scored twice. Teoscar Hernandez added two hits and two RBIs.
Yamamoto needed 90 pitches to complete seven innings, throwing 66 strikes. He walked one and gave up only De La Cruz’s solo homer. Blake Treinen and Seth Halvorsen each followed with a scoreless inning, combining for three more strikeouts. Dodgers pitchers finished with 13 strikeouts and one walk.
Rhett Lowder allowed seven earned runs on seven hits and two walks over 3⅓ innings for Cincinnati. Mey was charged with two more runs in two-thirds of an inning. The Reds used six pitchers, including catcher Jose Trevino for the eighth, when Tucker hit the Dodgers’ final homer.
Los Angeles finished with 14 hits and six walks. Cincinnati had six hits, with Sal Stewart collecting two of them. The Reds’ only run came on one swing; the Dodgers scored in six different innings and had four players drive in at least two runs.
The fourth inning separated the teams. Cincinnati had just cut the deficit, but Los Angeles immediately answered with its largest rally of the night. Yamamoto’s strikeouts and control left the Reds little room to make another run at it.
