After playing Sunday Night Baseball and flying overnight, the Reds had more than few players craving sleep on Monday afternoon. The team did not get to its Los Angeles hotel until 3 a.m. PT before opening a series vs. the Dodgers.
What followed in the twilight hours was almost a waking nightmare for the Reds’ lineup in the form of Hyun-Jin Ryu. The Dodgers left-hander took a perfect game into the eighth inning before the wakeup call was answered just a little too late in a 4-3 defeat.
“Our silver lining today was the fact that we really rallied the last couple of innings,” Reds manager Bryan Price said.
Leading off the eighth, Todd Frazier lined a 1-0 pitch from Ryu near the left-field line for a clean double to become the Reds’ first baserunner after 21 in a row were retired. It sparked a three-run rally in which nine men batted before the inning ended with the bases loaded.
Once Frazier scored on Chris Heisey’s sacrifice fly in the eighth, it ended a streak of 16 consecutive scoreless innings after they were handed a 4-0 shutout by the Cardinals the previous night.
For the Dodgers, they flirted with making history by being the first team to notch no-hitters in consecutive games. Before Monday’s game, Dodger Stadium was celebrating Josh Beckett’s no-hitter in Sunday’s 6-0 win at Philadelphia.
“We stayed positive,” Heisey said of the club’s mood while Ryu was mowing the team down. “We were able to keep life in there and everybody was picking each other up. There was a lot of confidence. You’ve got to keep battling.”
Reds ace Johnny Cueto pitched well, mostly, but the familiar story of coming up short got another chapter. Cueto, who flew to the West Coast Sunday afternoon ahead of his team to get enough rest, allowed four runs — only one was earned — on four hits and two walks while striking out three over 6 1/3 innings.
Now 4-4 with a 1.83 ERA, three of Cueto’s losses have come when the Reds have scored three or fewer runs.
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