Yamamoto Deals, Four Dodgers Go Deep in 14-1 Rout
Los Angeles turned a September Thursday into a statement, beating Cincinnati 14-1 behind four home runs and a dominant seven-inning start from Yoshinobu Yamamoto. The Reds never had a chance — the Dodgers scored in six of eight innings and sent nine runs across in the fourth alone.
Yamamoto was the foundation. Seven innings, three hits, one earned run, one walk, and 10 strikeouts — the kind of line that makes an offense's job feel almost unfair. He handed a comfortable lead to the bullpen and never looked threatened. Blake Treinen added a clean inning of relief, and Seth Halvorsen finished it off, meaning Cincinnati's lone run — Elly De La Cruz's 403-foot shot to center in the fourth — came against Yamamoto and stood as the only blemish on an otherwise suffocating pitching performance.
The offense, though, is where this game became something else entirely. Los Angeles scored first in the second on a Freeland groundout that plated T. Hernández. Then in the third, Mookie Betts crushed a 382-foot homer to left center, scoring Smith and pushing the lead to 3-0 — the win probability swung from 87% to 93% on that swing alone. De La Cruz answered immediately with his solo shot in the fourth, but the Reds' momentum lasted exactly one half-inning. Los Angeles erupted: a Freeland double scored Tucker, then Enrique Hernández doubled to left to score Feduccia and Freeland, and the Reds' pitcher uncorked two wild pitches that each moved the score. By the time T. Hernández singled to left to score Smith and Betts, it was 9-1 and the game was over in every meaningful sense. Max Muncy added a two-run shot to right in the sixth, Enrique Hernández went deep to left in the seventh for two more, and Kyle Tucker capped it with a solo homer to right center in the eighth. Final: 14-1.
The story of the night was the sheer depth of the damage. Betts went 3-for-5 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 3 runs scored. Tucker went 3-for-5 with a homer. Enrique Hernández finished 2-for-4 with a homer, 4 RBI, and 2 runs scored. T. Hernández added 2 RBI on 2 hits. Four different Dodgers went deep, and the offense appears to be operating at a level that looks genuinely difficult to contain. For Cincinnati, De La Cruz's 403-foot blast was a reminder of his raw power, but one run in a 14-1 game tells the whole story of how the night went for the Reds.