By Hal McCoy
The Los Angeles Dodgers completed a three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds in Dodger Stadium Wednesday night and the difference was, uh, $$212.1 million.
The Dodgers (payroll: $336.4 million) crushed and crunched the Reds (payroll: $124.3 million) 14-1.
It was as big of a mismatch as The Charge of the Light Brigade against the Russians in the Crimean War.
Amidst 14 hits, the Dodgers blasted four home runs in beating the Reds for the 11th straight time in Dodger Stadium, plus extending their winning streak to a season’s best seven straight.
And the Dodgers two best hitters, Shohei Ohtani ($700 million) and Freddie Freeman ($167 million) spent the night as spectators in the dugout.
It didn’t matter. Without them, the Dodgers still annihilated the Reds, dropping them to 17-34 in games decided by five or more runs. In that same situation, LA is 30-15.
The mismatch began on the pitching mound: LA’s Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million) versus Cincinnati’s Rhett Lowder ($790,000).
Indeed, as they say, money isn’t everything but it means mountains in Major League Baseball.
Yamamoto, last year’s World Series MVP and a three-time MVP for the Onix Buffaloes in the Japanese Central League, is earning his $28 million a year deal.
He held the Reds to one run and three hits with a walk and 10 strikeouts en route to lifting his record to 13-8 with a 2.62 earned run average.
“He has a pretty impressive breaking ball,” said Reds manager Tito Francona, not to mention six pitches in his repertoire.
Lowder lasted only 3 1/3 innings and gave up seven runs, seven hits, walked two and struck out four. His record slithered to 6-10 with a 5.81 earned run average.
“He couldn’t command his four-seamer,” said Francona. “That lineup is so dangerous that when he made a mistake he really paid for it.”
The positive portion of this game for the Reds can he capsulized in a few words: Elly De La Cruz homered for the fifth straight game, his career-best 26th.
And that was it.
The Dodgers dominated the Reds so resolutely that Teoscar Hernandez left the game after five innings. He had two hits, drove in two and scored a run.
When he left, the Dodgers led 9-1 and for the three games Hernandez was 7 for 10 with six RBI, three runs scored, a home run and a triple.
It didn’t help that manager Tito Francona sent out a lineup against Yamamoto without Dane Myers, Matt McLain, Tyler Stephenson, Eugenio Suarez and Jose Trevino.
Trevino did make an appearance, one of those embarrassing appearances on the pitcher’s mound when the Reds are so far behind the situation is hopeless.
Trevino pitched for the sixth time and gave up the 14th and final run, a home run by Kyle Tucker. That ballooned his earned run average to 15.43.
LA’s number nine hitter, Kike Hernandez, drove in four runs with a two-run double and a two-run homer.
The Dodgers hit four home runs — the ones by Tucker and Kike Hernandez, plus one by Mookie Betts and one by Max Muncy.
LA scored a run in the second and two in the third on Betts’ home run to take a 3-0 lead. Betts finished the night with three hits, three runs scored and two RBI.
With one out in the fourth, De La Cruz picked on Yamamoto’s first pitch and cranked the 97 miles an hour fastball over the center field wall to cut the LA lead to 3-1.
“He is fun to watch and there wasn’t a whole lot of fun stuff to watch,” said Francona.
Things got out of hand and out of control in the Dodgers’ fourth when 10 batters came to the plate and six scored.
The first four reached against Lowder, a rally started by — of course — Teoscar Hernandez. His single gave him hits in each of the last 18 games he has played against the Reds.
Kyle Tucker, who came into the game 7 for 58, doubled, then came a walk, a run-scoring double by Alex Freeland and Kike Hernandez’s two-run double.
Luis Mey replaced Lowder and gave a walk and two singles for two more runs and a 9-1 LA lead.
The 14 runs was the 14th time the Dodgers have scored 11 or more runs in a game, most in MLB.