By Hal McCoy
To their dismay, the Cincinnati Reds displayed how to lose a game, 6-3, when the opposing team collects only three hits — two by one player.
That was the scenario on Labor Day as the Reds were not on good terms with Lady Luck in Dodger Stadium.
In fact, Lady Luck is nowhere near when the Reds are in Los Angeles. They’ve lost nine straight games in Dodger Stadium.
Reds third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, a Platinum Glove defender, started his first game Monday after spending two weeks on the injured list.
It looked as if Hayes wore that platinum glove on the field while making two errors that led to three Dodgers runs, the margin of victory.
The Reds led, 1-0, in the fifth inninng and the Dodgers had zero hits.
Teoscar Hernandez remedied that with a leadoff single in the fifth off Brandon Williamson.
Williamson struck out the next two Dodgers, then hit Alex Cole with a pitch, putting runners on second and first with two outs.
LA manager Dave Roberts sent up Miguel Rojas to pinch-hit and he swung at the first pitch, sending a high-hopper Hayes’ way.
He fielded it cleanly, but threw the ball high, wide and ugly off first baseman Sal Stewart’s body. Hernandez scored from second and when right fielder Hector Rodriguez overran the ball trying to retrieve it, Cole scored all the way from first — two runs on one error and a 2-1 LA lead.
Reds manager Tito Francona, ever the protector of his players, aimed soothing words Hayes’ way.
“It was a tough play,” he said about the two-run throwing error. “Real tough play. Both plays. He had to rush and it short-hopped Sal and caromed off Sal.
“It rolled into no-man’s land and Hector (Rodriguez) did a heck of a job to get there, but he overran it. So we missed our chance for the last out.”
After trailing, 5-1, the Reds chopped away to get back to within 5-3 in the eighth.
But Hayes struck again. He booted Tommy Edman’s leadoff grounder and he came around to score on pinch-hitter Will Smith’s sacrifice fly.
It looked truly positive for the Reds in the early going. Scorching hot Elly De La Cruz picked on the first pitch he saw in the first inning and drove it toward the San Andreas Mountains for a 1-0 Reds lead.
And Chase Burns? Unhittable. . .for three innings he was permitted to pitch. To prevent possible injury to his young arm, Burns and Williamson will piggyback the rest of the season.
Three innings is Burns’ limit. For those three innings, Burns gave up no runs and no hits, walked one and struck out five.
He struck out the last four batters he faced and the last one was Shohei Ohtani.
“It’s hard to take him out,” said Francona. “That’s not a fun thing. But it’s the right thing. He understands.
“And I give him credit because he approached it the right way, pitched it like it was a regular game for him,” Francona added. “I told him, ‘We’re gonna get you out, but just pitch like you pitch.’”
On the flip side, LA starter Emmet Sheehan was making his first start aftrer a one-month exile to Triple-A. In his previous MLB start, the Boston Red Sox riddled him for six runs and six hits in 2 2/3 innings.
He obviously put his pitchng act back to one piece in the minors. After the De La Cruz home run he retired 14 straight.
The string ended when rookie Carlos Jorge led the sixth with his first major league hit, a single. And the Reds loaded the bases with two outs.
Roberts removed Sheehan and sent lefthander Alex Vesia to face lefthanded-hitting JJ Bleday. Vesia caught him gaping at strike three.
Sheehan went 5 2/3 inning and gave up one run and three hits while walking only one and striking out 10. The Reds struck out 14 times.
Other than the three runs scored on the Hayes’ error, the other three came on a three-run home run by Teoscar Hernandez.
In came in the sixth when Williamson walked two, but had two outs. Hernandez pulled an off-speed pitch 392 feet over the left field fence.
Hernandez has hit safely in 17 straight games against the Reds and at that point the Dodgers have five runs on two hits — both by Hernandez.
“The walks leading up to the home run were obviously big,” said Francona. “I actually thought (Williamson) threw the ball pretty good. The walks (five) really hurt us. But I thought he did pretty well.”
In backing up Burns, Williamson pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up six runs (only three earned), three hits, walked five and struck out four during his 86-pitch night.