CINCINNATI — Throughout the Dodgers’ midsummer skid, they haven’t quite been in sync. A badly slumping offense seemed the culprit for the team’s struggles midway through July, while a rotation trending in the right direction was offset by a leaky bullpen.
So in many regards, Monday night’s 5-2 victory over the Reds marked the Dodgers’ most complete win in quite some time.
Yoshinobu Yamamoto gave up a run on a forceout in the first inning but held the Reds scoreless over the rest of his seven strong frames. Mookie Betts reached and scored three times. Shohei Ohtani (two-run double), Teoscar Hernández (two RBI singles) and Freddie Freeman (RBI single) all produced at the top of the order.
There was some late drama when Blake Treinen entered in a non-save situation in the bottom of the ninth and gave up a run in his first appearance since being activated from the 60-day injured list. He loaded the bases with two outs, but rookie Jack Dreyer took over and was able to end the threat.
It was just the kind of effort that the Dodgers believed they were capable of, even as they struggled to put all the pieces together.
