Steve Webb
CINCINNATI, OH — Ugh. After an ugly loss at home against the Yankees, the Dodgers were hoping for some good mojo against a lesser opponent when they rolled in Cincinnati to face the Reds. And for much of the game, things were going according to script. The Dodgers put up three in the first, and thanks to a Freddy Freeman grand slam, put up five more runs in the 4th inning to stake the Dodgers and starter Tony Gonsolin to a comfy 8-3 lead.
But Gonsolin gave up one run in the fifth. With an elevated pitch count, Gonsolin then exited the game and what ensued was a parade of futility. Yency Almonte gave up one in the sixth. Brusdar Graterol gave up another in the 7th. With the score suddenly 8-6, Dave Roberts switched to his big guns and brought in Evan Phillips for a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and then handed it to Caleb Ferguson to finish off the game in the ninth.
Things, shall we say, didn’t go according to plan. A walk. A single. A pop-out. Another walk. Another walk and Cincy was within a run. A hit batsman tied the game. Then, with the outfield ridiculously shallow to cut off a run at the plate, Socal native Matt McClain hit a fly ball over Jason Heyward‘s head in centerfield to give the Reds a walk-off win. It. Was. Not. Pretty.
“I think if you look at my last couple [appearances], I’ve just been grinding a little bit,” said Ferguson, whose ERA has jumped from 0.98 to 3.38 in his past four outings. “Just be better, that’s it. … I’ve been bad. I hope Doc keeps running me out there. I’ll figure it out, but at the end of the day, it comes back on me. I’ve just got to be better.”
“It’s very uncharacteristic,” manager Dave Roberts said in postgame comments. “It’s very difficult to build momentum, to finish games, to not have to go to other guys. If you’re not striking guys out, you’re walking guys. The inflated ERA and all that stuff, it should level out. I don’t expect us to be here for the duration of the season. But as of now, this is where we’re at. It’s just got to be better, all around.”
