Los Angeles-Yoshinobu Yamamoto hit an late season after the seventh inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers broke open with a four-run sixth to beat the Cincinnati Reds 8-4 on Wednesday evening and on to the National League Division Series.
The defensive World Series champion Dodgers continued to their 20th NLDS performance – 13th in a row – in the franchise history and will be confronted against the Phillies in Philadelphia from Saturday.
The teams met for the last time in the late season in 2009, when the Phillies defeated the Dodgers in the NL Championship series for the second consecutive year.
“I know we can win the whole thing,” Betts said. “We have to keep pitching, touching and defending on time, and everything should be fine.”
After he reached a franchise play-off-Ting five home runs in a 10-5 victory in the NL Wild Card Series Opener Tuesday, the Dodgers eliminated the Reds by playing small ball and beating 13 hits less than in game 1.
Mookie Betts went 4 for 5 with three Doubles and Bond Jim Gilliam in Game 4 of the World Series from 1953 for most Doubles in one game after the season in team history.
“I think what we see is winning pitches, using the whole field, fighting and not trying to just make slug,” said manager Dave Roberts. “I think we are taking teams.”
After the Reds had taken a 2-0 lead in the first, Yamamoto eliminated the following 13 batters.
The Dodgers gathered to take a 3-2 lead before the Japanese right-handed person walked out of a huge jam in the sixth. The Reds loaded the bases without outs on successive singles by TJ Friedl, Spencer Steer and former Dodger Gavin Lux.
Austin Hays was based on the choice of a field player on Shortstop and Betts Schoten home, where Catcher Ben Rortvedt stamped the album to get Friedl. Yamamoto then eliminated Sal Stewart and Elly de la Cruz on back-to-back swinging strikeouts to end the threat.
“I just tried to bring my everything there,” Yamamoto said through a translator.
With blue rally towels waving, Yamamoto ran away to a standing ovation of the crowd of 50,465.
“As soon as he had the two outs, I think he smelled a little blood there and was able to attack and get the latter,” Betts said.
Yamamoto got the first two of the seventh before he left for a second ovation. The right-handed one allowed two runs, four hits and ran two on a career-high 113 throws. They were the most pitches of a Dodger in the Play -offs since Walker Buehler has been 117 in Game 5 of the NLDS 2019.
For the second consecutive night, the mood of the fans is acid in the eighth. Reliever Emmet Sheehan gave up two points, making the score at 8-4, before the Reds brought the draw to the record against Alex Vesia.
He received Friedl on a third strike to put an end to the inning in which Sheehan and Vesia made a combined 41 throws. On Tuesday, three Dodgers -Relievers needed 59 throws to get three in the eighth.
Rookie Roki Sasaki threw the ninth and got three, including Striking Out Steer and Lux on pitches that hit 101 MPH.
The Dodgers stranded runners in each of the first five innings, but they took a 3-2 lead over Kiké Hernández’s RBI Double and Miguel Rojas’ RBI-Single who hit the first-base line to chase Reds-Starter Zack Littell.
The RBI single from Shohei Ohtani who led the sixth, broke a 0-out-9 skid against Reds-Reliever Nick Martinez.
Betts added an RBI doublel and Teoscar Hernández had a two-run double that expanded the lead to 7-2.
Yamamoto could have had a scoreless first, but Teoscar Hernández dropped a ball from Hays that would have been the third. Hernández hugged Yamamoto in the dugout after the Japanese star left the game.
Stewart’s two-run RBI-Single with two outs first avoided a diving Freddie Freeman for a 2-0 lead. It was Cincinnati’s first lead in a postseas game since Game 3 of the NLDS 2012 against San Francisco.
#Dodgers #sweep #Reds #continue #NLDS #confrontation #Phillies