Dodgers can’t overcome Yency Almonte meltdown in loss to Reds
The Dodgers didn’t have another miraculous comeback this week, their seventh-inning rally against the Cincinnati Reds failing multiple times in the final 6-5 loss in front of 48,280 spectators in the Chávez Gorge on Friday evening.
Three days after scoring four runs in the ninth inning and one in the tenth for an 8-7 comeback win over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Dodgers were trailing 6-2 after reliever Yency Almonte hit three runs in the seventh inning had suffered.
However, they almost equalized at the end of the seventh game after left-handers David Peralta and James Outman replaced right-handers Kiké Hernández and Miguel Rojas at the bottom of the order.
Peralta led to right field in front of Reds right-hander Lucas Sims in the seventh round with a narrow ground-rule double, and Outman left. Mookie Betts topped a nine-pitch at-bat with a walk to stress the bases.
Reds manager David Bell, who signed a three-year extension to 2026 before the game, drew Sims in favor of right-hander Ian Gibaut, who handed an RBI single to Freddie Freeman who cut the lead to 6-4 and put Betts in elevated position brought third.
Will Smith flew into center right field, Betts held in third, and JD Martinez hit for second out with a 92 mph cut fastball.
Amed Rosario, who made his Dodgers debut after the Cleveland Guardians traded Wednesday, hit an RBI single down center right to put the Dodgers 6-5 up. Max Muncy, facing left-hander Alex Young, drove a ball down the center warning lane, but TJ Friedl brought it in to end the inning.
The Dodgers were 3-2 down as Almonte, who had his ERA down to 4.43 from 6.75 on June 15, hit 18 and three in 14⅔ with 15 straight games in which he gave up seven goals Innings went, the seventh started and Joey clinched votto to ground to shortstop for the first out.
From there, the inning quickly unraveled. Spencer Steer hit a slider 357 feet into left field pitches for his 15th home run of the season and a 4-2 lead. Tyler Stephenson hit a single to left center. Will Benson left. Almonte threw a wild pitch and put the runners in second and third place.
Amed Rosario hit a single in the seventh inning in his Dodgers debut on Friday against the Reds.
(Ashley Landis/Associated Press)
Elly De La Cruz was intentionally escorted on foot to load the bases. Almonte hit Friedl on the back knee with an 84 mph sweeper to force a run to the 5-2. Matt McLain went over four shots and forced a run for a 6-2 lead.
Almonte was drawn in favor of right-hander Phil Bickford, who prevented further damage – and kept Almonte’s ERA from shooting past 5.02 – by getting Jake Fraley to get to first base and Jonathan India to get to first Jumping base to finish the inning.
The Reds struck the winning blow in the first inning with five batters against Dodgers starter Bobby Miller. De La Cruz led the game with a triple to right field, Friedl hit an RBI groundout, McLain doubled to right and Fraley hit a two-run home run from the foul pole in right field for a 3-0 lead.
It didn’t look like Miller would last long after throwing 33 pitches in the first frame, but the rookie right-hander began to give up his 100-mph fastballs in favor of his 80-mph looping curveballs, and defeated those Reds with two hits and five strikeouts in the next four innings.
The Dodgers reduced the deficit to 3-1 in the first inning when Freeman went with an out and hit Martinez’s two-out RBI double to left midfield. In the fourth round, they closed 3-2, but got an out on the basepaths, preventing a larger inning.
Rosario doubled to left center and Muncy flew in the middle. Chris Taylor left and Hernández jumped out first for the second time.
Rojas hacked a grounder past a popping Votto at first base into right field to hit Rosario and make it 3-2, but Rojas circled the base too aggressively and went into a rundown between first and second base.
Taylor tied for third with the hit, drifting too far off the sack during the Rojas rundown. Cincinnati second baseman India threw to De La Cruz in third, and De La Cruz fired at catcher Stephenson, who substituted Taylor to end the inning.
