Betts, Dodgers Beat Reds, Extend Streak to 7

Mookie Betts sparked another Dodgers blowout and Los Angeles just ran its winning streak to seven. Betts smashed an early two-run homer and Yoshinobu Yamamoto punched out 10 over seven strong innings as the Dodgers demolished the Cincinnati Reds 14-1 on Wednesday at Dodger Stadium, per Reuters Field Level Media.

Los Angeles (89-57) completed a three-game sweep and finished a 7-2 homestand before its final multi-city road trip. The bats did not need Shohei Ohtani or Freddie Freeman in the lineup to pile on. This night belonged to Betts, Yamamoto, and a parade of extra-base hits.

Betts set the tone, then the floodgates opened

Alex Freeland's run-scoring double play made it 1-0 in the second. Betts answered in the third with a homer to left, his 19th of the season and third in his last seven games, stretching the lead to 3-0. Elly De La Cruz briefly cut it to 3-1 with a fourth-inning homer that extended his own long-ball streak to five games.

Then Los Angeles put the game away with a six-run fourth. Freeland doubled in a run, Enrique Hernandez ripped a two-run double, a wild pitch scored another, and Teoscar Hernandez delivered a two-run single. Teoscar stayed scorching with two hits and two RBIs, marking a career-best seventh straight game with an RBI.

Yamamoto dealt, power kept coming

Yamamoto (13-8) allowed one run on three hits and one walk across seven innings. Ten strikeouts. One crooked number. That is ace work on a night the offense gave him a football score. Kyle Tucker finished with three hits and later homered. Max Muncy added a two-run shot in the sixth. Enrique Hernandez went deep again in the seventh.

Ohtani has missed six of the past seven games with knee and biceps discomfort, a story we already covered when Ohtani landed on the IL picture. Freeman was also out with knee discomfort. Neither absence slowed this lineup Wednesday. Betts and Tucker each had three hits. The Reds (69-77) fell to 0-3 on their six-game trip after Rhett Lowder (6-10) was tagged for seven runs in 3 1/3 innings.

For Dodgers fans, this was the kind of September statement that makes a winning streak feel heavy. Betts got them rolling. Yamamoto carved through seven. The middle of the order kept stacking crooked numbers. A 14-1 sweep-closer and a season-high seven-game streak send Los Angeles onto the road loud. On a night when other boards were watching Schwarber's grand slam headlines, Dodger Stadium answered with a full demolition of its own.