LOS ANGELES — Tarik Skubal walked in the eighth inning, former Blue Jay Teoscar Hernandez scored in the fifth inning and the Los Angeles Dodgers held off the Cincinnati Reds 3-2 on Tuesday night for their sixth straight win.
Hernandez went 3-for-3 with a walk and hit .484 in his last nine games. Will Smith scored early for the NL West leaders.
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani was given the day off to rest his knee and biceps injuries. Freddie Freeman went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts as the designated hitter in Ohtani’s place.
Skubal (9-7) allowed two runs and four hits in 7 1/3 innings, struck out five and walked two. The Dodgers have won all of his last four games.
Since joining the club shortly before the Aug. 3 trade deadline, the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner is 2-2 with a 2.84 ERA and 48 strikeouts against 10 walks in seven starts.
Tanner Scott pitched the ninth and earned his 22nd save.
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead on Smith’s two-hit, two-out homer from Nick Lodolo in the first. Hernandez walked and scored when Tommy Edman was hit by Lodolo’s pitch with the bases loaded for the second time.
Hernandez’s go-ahead hit to center field caught Lodolo (3-4). The lefty gave up three runs and five hits in 4 2/3 innings, striking out six.
Cincinnati’s Ellie De La Cruz tied the game at 2 with a two-out, two-run homer from Skubal in the third. The 444-foot drive to center — the longest homer hit at Dodger Stadium this season — came at 87 mph, giving De La Cruz a homer in four straight games, tying his career high. He also matched his club single-season record for homers, ranking 25th in changeup hitters.
De La Cruz made a brilliant defensive play late in the half.
With two outs, Hernandez tripled and the ball sailed past charging center fielder Dane Myers, who chased it to the wall. Left fielder JJ Bleday stepped up and sent a relay throw to De La Cruz, who raced from shortstop to center. He hit a 106 mph throw to the plate to nail Hernandez, who was given the green light by third base coach Dino Ebel to attempt an inside-the-park home run.
The Reds had a potential tying run in scoring position in the eighth after De La Cruz pitcher Edgardo Enriquez’s double. Sal Stewart was 1-2 when the Dodgers called. It was overturned by the automatic ball striking system and Stewart struck to end the threat.
Reds RHP Rhett Lowder (6-9, 5.43 ERA) starts Wednesday’s series finale against RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto (12-8, 2.67).