By HAL McCOY
Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts appeared to do the Cincinnati Reds a huge favor Friday nigh when he populated his dugout with a slew of regular players.
On the bench at the start of the game were Adrian Gonzalez, Chase Utley, Yasiel Puig and Yasmani Grandal.
NO DOUBT HE WAS trying to inject some offensive punch into a lineup that had scored two runs or less in six of its seven games.
It worked better than new brakes on a downtown LA freeway at rush hour.
The Dodgers piled on the Reds, 7-2, Cincinnati’s seventh straight loss in Dodger Stadium.
IT BEGAN POORLY FOR Reds starter Amir Garrett in the first inning and quickly got worse in the second inning. LA’s Justin Turner, fresh off the disabled list and absent since May 19, made his first at bat special — a two-run home run after Garrett walked leadoff Chris Taylor on five pitches.
Then the first batter Garrett faced in the second inning, Austin Barnes, smashed a line drive up the middle. Garrett instinctively stuck up his left pitching hand and the ball caught it flush and ricocheted away for a base hit.
Garrett went down and had to leave the game when he lost feeling in the hand. X-rays were negative, but he suffered a contusion.
JAKE BUCHANAN REPLACED Garrett and gave up four runs, five hits, three walks and hit a batter in 2 1/3 innings.
He gave up two in the third on his own throwing error. With the bases loaded, Austin Barnes chopped one that bounced high in the air toward third. Third baseman Eugenio Suarez could have fielded it, but Buchanan cut it off and made a wild off-balance throw past first base.
Buchanan loaded the bases in the fourth with one out on a double, a walk and a hit batsman. Franklin Gutierrez singled to left for two more runs and a 6-1 Dodgers lead.
The final run came in the eighth when Tony Cingrani took the mound and the first batter he faced, Kike Hernandez homered over the center field fence.
AFTER SCORING 28 RUNS during a four-game sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals, the Reds were silenced by Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda.
Hill gave up one run and only two hits over five innings, but walked five and his pitch count reached 98 after five innings.
He was replaced by Kenta Maeda, making his first relief appearance after 10 starts. Maeda, perhaps trying to show the Dodgers they made a mistake demoting him to the bullpen,
Jose Peraza had both Reds hits off Hill, including a run-scoring single in the third. That was the last hit of the night for the Reds.
Maeda retired the first nine batters he faced before Joey Votto led the ninth with a home run, his 17th and third in three games. Patrick Kivlehan singled and Peraza singled for the third time before Maeda retired Tucker Barnhart to end it — a four-inning, six-strikeout save for Maeda.
Zack Cozart drew a walk in the third, extending his on-base streak to 31 straight games, tying Barry Larkin’s 31 straight in 1991 for most by a Reds shortstop. On the other side of the ledger, Billy Hamilton went 0 for 4 and is on a 0 for 14 slide.
Adam Duvall was out of Friday’s lineup with an illness.