James Paxton, control freak? That nickname wouldn’t have suited the veteran left-hander in his first month with the Dodgers, when Paxton had more walks (22) than strikeouts (15) in 25 ⅔ innings through his first five starts.
But Paxton found some rhythm in his pitching and the strike zone in the process, delivering his second straight start of six innings and zero walks, helping the Dodgers earn an eventual 7-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in front of a crowd of 46,832 people. Dodger Stadium on Friday night.
Paxton gave up three earned runs and seven hits in six innings, striking out two and walking none in a 92-pitch start. He left after allowing a leadoff single in the seventh inning with the score tied 3–3, a deadlock that the Dodgers quickly ended with two runs in each of the seventh and eighth innings.
Kiké Hernández led off the bottom of the seventh with a single to center field off reliever Fernando Cruz. Mookie Betts struck out and Shohei Ohtani grounded to first baseman Jeimer Candelario, who threw to second base for the second out.
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Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz had no chance to double the speedy Ohtani, but he still fired a throw to first base. Bad choice. The errant throw landed well into the camera next to the first base dugout, giving Ohtani second.
The Reds elected to intentionally walk Freddie Freeman to pitch to Will Smith, who hit a first-pitch fastball into center field for an RBI single and a 4-3 lead. Freeman went from first to third base on the hit and scored on a wild pitch for a 5-3 lead.
Andy Pages hit a one-out single to strand Reds closer Alex Díaz in the eighth, and Jason Heyward, who was activated from the injured list earlier Friday after sitting out six weeks with a lower back injury, hit a towering two-run homer just inside the right field foul pole for a 7-3 lead.
Michael Grove, Blake Treinen and Daniel Hudson each pitched a scoreless inning in relief for the Dodgers, who ended a two-game losing streak.
Betts led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run to left field off Reds starter Frankie Montas, the 51st career leadoff home run for the Dodgers shortstop, who ranks fifth on the all-time baseball list behind Rickey Henderson (81), George Springer (57). ), Alfonso Soriano (54) and Craig Biggio (53).
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The Dodgers extended the lead to 3-0 in the third when Kiké Hernández led off with a single to right-center, Betts grounded into a fielder’s choice and Ohtani hit a 95 mph fastball to the outer half of the plate over the short left side. field wall for a two-run home run into the opposite field, his 13th of the season.
Paxton needed just 27 pitches to get through the first three innings, which featured a pair of smooth double plays started by second baseman Gavin Lux in the second and third, but he encountered some turbulence during a 25-pitch fourth.
Jonathan India led off with a single to center, took second on a wild pitch and third on De La Cruz’s grounder to second base. India scored on Spencer Steer’s grounder to the shortstop to narrow the deficit to 3-1. Steer reached base when Betts’ throw pulled Freeman off first base.
Candelario singled to left to put up two with two outs, but Paxton got Mike Ford to chase an 85-mph cut fastball off the plate for a strikeout that ended the inning.
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The Reds cut the lead to 3-2 in the fifth when Stuart Fairchild hit an 84 mph cutter in left center over the wall for a leadoff homer, his third of the season.
Cincinnati tied the score at 3-3 in the sixth when Tyler Stephenson got just enough of Paxton’s 80-mph, full-knuckle curve to send a 350-foot two-out homer to left field.
Difficult situation
Roberts said he was “a little annoyed” when crew chief Bill Miller, the plate umpire for Thursday night’s game, called on the other three umpires to check Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow’s throwing hand for sticky substances as the right-hander came off the mound. after the second inning of a 7-2 loss to the Reds.
Glasnow had a dark spot on the thumb and some discoloration in the palm, but the referees found no illegal substances.
“The purpose of the rule is to prevent sticky substances, so if your hand is not sticky, I don’t see a problem,” Roberts said. “If there is only discoloration and it does not stick, then there is a problem [with such extreme checks]because that’s not how it should be. We try to guard against sticky things.”
Glasnow said his hand gets discolored every time he throws from the mound, during bullpen practice or a game, because he mixes resin with a baseball rubbed in dirt. But he wasn’t as disturbed by the sticky check as Roberts was.
“[Miller] came up and said, ‘Hey, I want the other referees to check it,’ and I said, ‘That’s fine, what’s the problem?’ Glasnow said Friday. “He says, ‘It’s just black.’ And I was like, ‘Is it sticky?’ And he says, ‘No, it’s not sticky.’ And then [the other umpires] came by and checked and they said it was fine, it’s just black.
Did Glasnow get nervous when Miller called for backup?
“No, because I know there was no sticky stuff on my hand,” Glasnow said. “I think if you ever look or zoom in on a pitcher using resin on the baseball, your hand will somehow have the ink on the baseball and the dirt on the baseball. So I wasn’t necessarily worried. There was no content. It was just black.”
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This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
