Adrián González hits the first of his three home runs at Cincinnati. (Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
By Jon Weisman
An offensive onslaught unlike any by the Dodgers in 10 years was unleashed in Cincinnati today, and Adrián González was at the forefront.
González not only hit three homers in a game for the second consecutive year, he had a career-high eight RBI in the Dodgers’ 18-9 victory over the Reds.
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The Dodgers crossed the plate more times than they had in any game since September 28, 2006, when James Loney had nine RBI in a 19-11 win at Colorado. They homered seven times, their most since the 4+1 Game on September 18, 2006, and also had their first four-homer inning since that date.
That included shots by Andrew Toles and Rob Segedin, who became the first Dodgers ever to hit their first Major League home runs, back-to-back, according to Elias Sports. It was also the first game in Dodger history with three separate instances of back-to-back homers.
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One of the seven homers was hit by Corey Seager, who tied the all-time Dodger record for shortstops with his 22nd — all in a 4-for-5 (plus a walk) afternoon that put Seager on pace for more than 200 hits this year.
Seager has now hit in 13 consecutive games. Since the swing-destroying Home Run Derby, the 22-year-old rookie is hitting .388/.424/.592.
For his part, González has hit in 15 straight, and is at .320/.365/.570 since the All-Star Break. González had a three-run homer with none out in the first inning, followed Seager’s homer in the fifth with a solo drive, hit his second three-run homer in the seventh and added an RBI groundout in the eighth.
The only one of the Reds’ six pitchers today not to allow a run was outfielder Tyler Holt, who retired the site in order on five pitches in his big-league pitching debut.
The downside for the Dodgers was a beleaguered day for their pitching staff, particularly Scott Kazmir, whose 2 1/3-inning start was a season low. Kazmir was victimized by an RBI triple lost in the sun by Toles in the first and two sub-75 mph bloop singles for runs in the third, but he was never sharp, allowing nine baserunners among his 17 batters faced.
At one point, Cincinnati cut a 6-1 Dodger lead down to 6-5, before the four-homer fifth inning boosted it back to 12-5 at the game’s halfway point. At 4:02, today’s game is tied for the eighth-longest nine-inning game in Dodger history.
The Dodgers will take a one-game lead in the National League West into their three-game series against the Giants that starts Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.
oldbrooklynfan
I hope the Dodgers have enough runs left in them for the Giants tomorrow night.
Kevin Ingraham
Also hope our starting pitching fares better
Michael Green
I think it would have been the August 20, 1974, game in which the Dodgers hit six homers against the Cubs in winning 18-8. I’m almost certain I remember this correctly (it was the same month when I got to meet The Vin when I was nine years old). Vin and Jerry used to take off an occasional road series and the other would do a game alone. If my memory serves, Vin had skipped the Chicago series and Jerry worked that game alone–and lived to tell about it.
oldbrooklynfan
Good memory.