CINCINNATI — The Dodgers can only hope it looks this good in October.
One night after Tarik Skubal went seven innings in his first scoreless outing as a Dodger, Yoshinobu Yamamoto matched him, allowing only one hit in his seven scoreless innings as the Dodgers shut out the Cincinnati Reds, 4-0, on Tuesday night.
“When you’re writing in the lineup and you see those guys, and one trying to up the other guy, and then now you got Snell going tomorrow — you feel good about preventing runs,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.
“A team like the Reds right now, where they’re scuffling a little bit, it’s daunting when you see a starter like those guys that we’re running out there.”
The win moved the Dodgers within one day of clinching their 13th NL West division title in the past 14 seasons. Their magic number is two with the second-place San Diego Padres playing later Tuesday night.
The Dodgers also extended their lead over the Atlanta Braves for the No. 2 seed in the National League to four games (with the Braves also playing later Tuesday). Their magic number to clinch a first-round bye is eight.
All of that makes the final two weeks of the regular season a chance for the Dodgers to get things right for October and their three-peat pursuit. The starting rotation appears to be there already.
Skubal has a 1.73 ERA over his past four starts. With Tuesday’s outing, Yamamoto’s ERA is 1.79 over his past seven starts. Blake Snell starts on Wednesday – and he has given up a total of only four runs in six starts since returning from elbow surgery. Only fourth starter Tyler Glasnow (eight runs in 10 innings over his past two starts) seems to have some work to do before being October-ready.
“Yeah, pretty good,” said Freddie Freeman after his first three-hit game since August 17. “You have Blake Snell going tomorrow. Tyler on the back end of that too. Roki’s on his way back.
“It’s a special pitching staff. It really is. So as an offense, we just need to score a few runs for them, just like we did last year.”
Yamamoto started Tuesday by giving the Reds hope – he walked the first two batters he faced – then he took it away, retiring 21 of the next 22 batters he faced.
“They took a little moment for me,” Yamamoto said through his interpreter of the mound visit from catcher Hunter Feduccia and pitching coach Mark Prior that followed the walks. “They came up to me and, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ and just checked in on me. And then I was able to get back to my normal rhythm.”
Elly De La Cruz had the only hit off Yamamoto, a double into the left-field corner with two outs in the third inning.
But even that was a victory – Yamamoto kept him in the ballpark after De La Cruz had hit a home run in each of the previous four games between the Dodgers and Reds. He then retired the next 13 batters in order, getting six of his seven strikeouts.
“After the first two hitters, it was vintage Yama,” Roberts said. “Just attacking, not trying to be too fine. Not giving these guys too much credit. And yeah, at first, it didn’t look promising as far as pitch count, the two walks. But then he kind of dialed things in, like he’s been known to do.”
The Dodgers gave him a lead in the second inning when Max Muncy was hit by a pitch and Tommy Edman and Hunter Feduccia followed with singles. They added to it in the third inning with a two-run home run from Teoscar Hernandez, who remains hot – 24 for 63 (.381) in his past 18 games.
“It’s been very helpful,” Roberts said of Hernandez’s late-season renaissance. “As certain guys are not seeing the ball as well, it’s nice to kind of backfill with guys like Teo swinging the bat. And when you can slug like he can, you can win baseball games, and he can carry us for a while. The last 10 days, something like that, it’s been really good from him. The defense ticked up. The at-bat quality, the taking walks, all of it. I can’t say enough about what he’s done the last 10 days.”
Alex Freeland added a solo home run in the seventh inning.
De La Cruz had another hit, a single in the ninth inning that put runners on the corners for the Reds with no outs. Tanner Scott struck out Sal Stewart, Jose Trevino and Eugenio Suarez to close out the shutout.