The Dodgers took two against the Reds to earn themselves a short but sweet two-game win streak. They will head into Wednesday’s game looking for the series sweep.
The Dodgers were already down 4-0 entering the bottom of the third, but the bats came alive to score two in the third to kick start the 6-5 victory in Monday’s game. They were down again entering the fifth, but tied it at 5′s with RBI singles by James Loney, Matt Kemp, and Blake DeWitt. DeWitt then delievered the clutch hit of the game when he hit a slow-rolling but game-winning single in the bottom of the ninth to score Russell Martin, who had singled earlier in the inning.
Brad Penny was scored on in all his six innings pitched except for two. He gave up five runs on nine hits but escaped the loss after leaving after six innings with a 5-5 tie. Joe Beimel, Jonathan Broxton and Saito each threw a scoreless inning to hold the Reds at 5 and allow DeWitt to hit his bloop RBI single to win the first of the series.
The Dodgers also took the second of the series against the Reds, this time being lead by the pitching.
The Dodgers took the lead in the second by rallying for two runs, including and RBI-single by starter Chad Billingsley. They added two more in the seventh when Chin-lung Hu got on and Juan Pierre got an RBI-single to score him. Pierre then scored when Russell Martin beat out a groundout that would’ve been a double play to end the inning.
Chad Billingsley was near perfect for his fourth victory of the season. He went seven innings, giving up just four hits with no runs and seven strikeouts. Jonathan Broxton and Joe Beimel combined for 1 2/3 scoreless innings before Saito closed out the ninth to earn his seventh save.
The Dodgers go for the series sweep on Wednesday with Hiroki Kuroda taking the mound. He has just one win in nine starts, but is coming off his best outing thus far after taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning. The Dodgers will face Johnny Cueto, who is 2-4 with a 5.75 ERA. Cueto also had a no-hitter going in his last outing but lost it in the fifth and eventually earned the no-decision.
