- LOS ANGELES — Like most Reds pitchers before him vs. the Dodgers this week, starter Graham Ashcraft navigated nicely against superstar slugger Shohei Ohtani on Saturday. But while Ohtani had plenty of others to pick him up, Ashcraft had no such fortune.
Ashcraft did the grinding and the battling on the mound but got no offensive support during a 4-0 loss to Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium. Cincinnati, which is now a season-high eight games under .500 at 19-27, has dropped 14 of its last 17 games.
It was the sixth time in that span the Reds were held to one run or less.
“You get tested at times,” said Reds manager David Bell, whose club is 5-17 over the last 22 games. “As tough as it is, you know when you stay with it, it will turn around. You wish there were shortcuts. Sometimes you have to continue to stick it out. Our team is going to do that.”
Bell continues to cling to confidence, but the last time the Reds were eight games under .500 was on May 25 of last season. About two weeks later, Elly De La Cruz and other prospects joined earlier callup Matt McLain on the roster. No such reinforcements to boost the offense are imminently arriving in 2024.
In five innings, Ashcraft gave up three earned runs, three hits and three walks with five strikeouts. The Reds have lost each of his last five starts while the right-hander has a 3.42 ERA in those games.
“Early on, I felt like I was attacking and making some good, quality pitches,” Ashcraft said. “They were able to battle them off. It’s hard to say if it was the stuff or they were getting the bat to the ball.”
Ohtani went 0-for-3 against Ashcraft (he’s 1-for-10 in the series) but other Dodgers hitters worked him and forced him to throw 106 pitches.
That total included 43 balls and 26 foul balls — including 14 with two strikes.
We had a plan to execute and it was to try and get his pitch count up and we were able to do that,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman said. “Even if we didn’t score any runs, we did a pretty good job to get him out and get to the bullpen.”
The Dodgers were held hitless through three innings but mounted a rally in the fourth when Freeman drew a leadoff walk and Teoscar Hernández walked with one out. In a 1-2 count, Andy Pages reached down at Ashcraft’s slider and sent an RBI single into center field.
“Only one hard-hit ball throughout the game. Of course, the walks killed me,” Ashcraft said. “After I walked Freddie, I was really trying to get after Teoscar and I was kind of overdoing it a little bit. Pages came up and I felt like I was making some quality pitches to him. That one slider stayed over the plate a little bit.
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