Three hits were enough as Tarik Skubal, Dodgers power past Reds 4-1

Power before volume

What decided this game for Los Angeles was not a long parade of base hits. It was select damage. Kyle Tucker opened the scoring with a solo home run to right in the second inning, then Teoscar Hernández stretched the lead in the fourth with a two-run shot to right-center that also brought Tucker home. By the time Enrique Hernández singled to center in the seventh to score Teoscar Hernández, the Dodgers had built a 4-0 lead while still carrying only three hits for the night.

That is what made the Dodgers' offense so unusual and, from Cincinnati's perspective, so frustrating. Los Angeles struck out six times and left 10 runners on base, so this was not a perfectly polished attacking display. But the Dodgers also drew six walks, stole three bases and ran Cincinnati's staff to 141 pitches. The hit total stayed tiny; the pressure did not. Nick Lodolo gave the Reds seven innings, which usually gives a team a chance, yet all four Dodgers runs landed on his line because the mistakes that mattered were loud ones.

There was also a small but important distinction in how the Dodgers created separation. They did not need an avalanche inning. Tucker's homer made it 1-0, Teoscar Hernández's swing made it 3-0, and the seventh-inning single from Enrique Hernández added the kind of insurance that can change the feel of the late innings. Cincinnati's bullpen kept the margin there over the final two innings, with Luis Mey and Tony Santillan each throwing a scoreless frame, but by then the game had already taken its shape.

Skubal set the terms

If the Dodgers were efficient with the bat, they were much more forceful on the mound. Tarik Skubal turned in the performance that gave everything else its meaning: seven scoreless innings, three hits allowed, one walk and nine strikeouts across 90 pitches. Cincinnati put only limited traffic in front of him, and Skubal's line tells the broader story of the night. The Reds were not shut out because of one dramatic escape; they were held down because they rarely put together enough winning plate appearances in the same inning.

The team numbers sharpen that point. Dodgers pitching finished with 11 strikeouts against one walk over nine innings, and Cincinnati managed four hits total. Only one of those went for extra bases, Elly De La Cruz's ninth-inning solo homer to center that traveled 457 feet. It was an emphatic swing, but it arrived too late to alter the structure of the game. Before that, the Reds had singles from Dane Myers, Eugenio Suárez and Juan Brito, plus a walk from JJ Bleday, and still could not turn those scattered moments into sustained offense.

Alex Vesia followed Skubal with a scoreless eighth inning, and Evan Phillips handled the ninth aside from De La Cruz's homer. That late run prevented the final score from looking like a complete pitching lock, but it should not blur the real point. Los Angeles controlled the strike zone far better. Cincinnati struck out 11 times, grounded into one double play and left eight runners on base. In a game without an error by either side, that gap in execution was enough to settle almost everything.

Our take: the score felt fair, even if the hit totals looked odd

Our take: this was one of those games where the scoreboard told the truth more clearly than the raw hit count. The Dodgers did not overwhelm Cincinnati with contact, and a team that leaves 10 men on base always has room to be cleaner. Still, the combination of six walks, three stolen bases and two home runs shows an offense that kept finding leverage even on a low-hit night. If there is one area Los Angeles can sharpen after a win like this, it is converting more of that traffic without waiting for the long ball; only one of its four runs scored on a non-homer, and even the scoreless ninth included two more walks that produced no damage.

Our take on Cincinnati is a little harsher because the route to a closer game was visible in the numbers. Lodolo limited the Dodgers to three hits over seven innings, and the bullpen did not allow a run after that, so this was not a night when the Reds were buried by constant contact. The problem was that the Dodgers' few clean swings were paired with four Lodolo walks, while Cincinnati's own hitters drew only one walk all night and struck out 11 times. When an opponent gets that much from so little and your lineup produces only one extra-base hit, the lesson is plain enough: more balls in play and more base runners would give the pitching effort a better chance to matter.

Scoring moments

1. 2nd Inning

   Tucker homered to right (398 feet).

2. 4th Inning

   T. Hernández homered to right center (383 feet), Tucker scored.

3. 7th Inning

   E. Hernández singled to center, T. Hernández scored.

4. 9th Inning

   De La Cruz homered to center (457 feet).