Hernández's Fifth-Inning Single Keeps LAD Ahead of De La Cruz's Cannon

Elly De La Cruz launched a 444-foot two-run shot to dead left center that erased a two-run LAD lead and swung the win probability from 88% to 76% — and it still wasn't enough. Los Angeles held on 3-2, with Teoscar Hernández delivering the decisive blow in the fifth.

LAD came out swinging early. Will Smith put the first run on the board in the first inning, homering 392 feet to left to make it 1-0. The lead doubled in the second when Tommy Edman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, scoring T. Hernández and pushing it to 2-0. Through two innings, Cincinnati had nothing, and Tarik Skubal looked every bit like a pitcher in command.

Then De La Cruz happened. In the third, with Dane Myers aboard, De La Cruz unloaded a 444-foot missile to left center — one of the longest balls you'll see all season — to tie the game at 2-2. That single swing moved the home win probability from 88% all the way down to 76%, a 12-point drop in an instant. The story of the night was right there: one of the most electric hitters in baseball reminding everyone exactly what he's capable of. De La Cruz finished 2-for-4 with the homer, 2 RBI, and a run scored. Nick Lodolo, meanwhile, was grinding through a rough outing — 4.2 innings, 5 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 walks — and didn't make it out of the fifth.

But LAD answered. In the fifth, T. Hernández singled to center to score Betts and put the Dodgers back in front 3-2, a lead they would not relinquish. Hernández was the quieter story of the night — he went a perfect 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, the kind of line that looks like a footnote until you realize it was the backbone of the offense. Skubal was excellent, going 7.1 innings and allowing just 2 earned runs on 4 hits with 5 strikeouts. Tanner Scott closed it out with a clean inning — no hits, no runs, two strikeouts. Cincinnati's Luis Mey also threw a scoreless frame in relief, but the Reds simply couldn't generate anything after De La Cruz's third-inning eruption. LAD's pitching appears to have been the difference: when the Dodgers needed outs, they got them.