Elly De La Cruz stole a career-high four bases and matched a career best with four hits as the visiting Cincinnati Reds rolled to a 7-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday in the opener of a four-game series.
Will Benson hit a leadoff home run and seven pitchers combined to give up two runs as the Reds improved to 3-4 on a 10-game, three-city road trip. Nick Martinez (1-2) entered in the third inning and gave up one hit over five scoreless innings with four strikeouts.
Cincinnati ended the Dodgers’ franchise-best run of 22 consecutive games while allowing four runs or less.
Dodgers ace Tyler Glasnow (6-2) gave up four runs on six hits over five innings with one walk and eight strikeouts. It was the second-most runs he allowed in an outing this season.
The Los Angeles offense combined for four hits, while Shohei Ohtani went 0-for-2 with a walk and a stolen base on his bobblehead night, which drew a crowd of 53,527. It was the largest crowd in the major leagues this year and the largest at Dodger Stadium since 2019.
The Reds jumped all over Glasnow in the first inning, getting Benson’s 439-foot home run on the sixth pitch of the game for a 1-0 lead. De La Cruz singled and stole second base before Tyler Stephenson made it 2-0 with a two-out double.
De La Cruz doubled and stole third base in the third inning and scored on another two-out hit from Stephenson, this one a single.
De La Cruz turned a walk and a steal of second and third base in the fifth inning into another run when he scored on a wild pitch for a 4-0 advantage. Stuart Fairchild, De La Cruz and Mike Ford each drove in a run in the ninth.
The Dodgers ended the shutout bid with two outs in the ninth on a two-run single from Gavin Lux.
De La Cruz has 30 steals and became the first player to steal four bases in a game against the Dodgers since the Philadelphia Phillies’ Jayson Werth in May 2009.
–Field Level Media