Dodgers 6, Reds 3: Hernández's 3-Run Homer, Sheehan's 10 Ks

Elly went first. Teoscar finished the argument.

September 7, 2026 - Los Angeles - Elly De La Cruz homered to center in the first inning, and Dodger Stadium had a 1-0 deficit before most of the crowd sat down. Teoscar Hernández answered in the sixth with a three-run shot to left that scored Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy. The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds 6-3 and won a fifth straight game.

Hernández went 2-for-3 with a walk, a stolen base, two runs, and three RBI. The Associated Press recap led with that homer and with Emmet Sheehan matching a career high with 10 strikeouts in his first major-league outing since August 2. Both things were true. The homer is why the scoreboard moved. The strikeouts are why Cincinnati never climbed all the way back.

Two unearned, then the one that counted

Los Angeles took the lead in the fifth without a hit that scored. Miguel Rojas reached on a throwing error by third baseman Ke'Bryan Hayes, and Hernández and Alex Call both came home. 2-1. Unearned. Messy. Enough to flip the inning.

The sixth was cleaner. Muncy had a double in the game and two walks. Freeman walked and later stole a base. Hernández did not wait for another error. His 13th homer of the year made it 5-1, a three-run fly to left, and Brandon Williamson was already in the book for the loss.

Williamson threw 4 1/3 innings after Chase Burns opened with three hitless innings: no runs, one walk, five strikeouts, 44 pitches. Burns did his job. Williamson walked five in 86 pitches and allowed three earned. The Reds' night on the mound was an opener who looked sharp and a follow-up who did not.

Eugenio Suárez homered to center in the seventh, his 22nd. 5-2. Héctor Rodríguez scored on a Dane Myers groundout in the eighth. 5-3. Will Smith lifted a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth that scored Muncy and put the third run of insurance on the board. 6-3.

De La Cruz finished 2-for-4 with a homer, an RBI, a stolen base, and two strikeouts. That first-inning swing was Cincinnati's best look at Sheehan. The rest of the order spent the night chasing.

Sheehan's 10, then the bullpen

Sheehan went 5 2/3 innings: three hits, one run, one walk, 10 strikeouts, 82 pitches (57 strikes). The run was De La Cruz's homer. Everything after that was swing-and-miss. He improved to 5-8. Alex Vesia got the last out of the sixth. Seth Halvorsen and Jack Dreyer each allowed a run in an inning of work. Evan Phillips threw a 1-2-3 ninth with two strikeouts for the save.

The Dodgers are 87-57. A fifth straight win in September is the version of this club that still looks like the team to beat in the National League. Cincinnati is 69-75 and spent Monday proving it can homer with De La Cruz and Suárez and still lose by three when the other lineup gets one clean swing with traffic.

Call was hit by a pitch. Muncy reached three times. Hernández did the damage. That is a middle-of-the-order night even when Shohei Ohtani is not the story.

Burns' three innings were the cleanest Reds pitching of the night: no hits, no runs, one walk, five strikeouts. Then Williamson inherited a 1-0 lead and walked five in 4 1/3. The error in the fifth was Hayes. The homer in the sixth was Hernández. A 1-0 lead after three innings became a 6-3 loss because the second pitcher could not throw strikes and the third baseman threw the fifth away.

Sheehan's 10 strikeouts tied a career high. He had not pitched in the majors since August 2. Eighty-two pitches, 57 strikes, one run, and a win. Phillips needed nine pitches in the ninth. The Dodgers are built to win games that start 1-0 the wrong way and end with the bullpen throwing a clean inning. Monday was that game.

AthX Engine after the baseball

AthX Engine credited the Dodgers with 12 team fantasy points, second on the Monday slate. Sheehan's 10-strikeout line scored 19.66 pitching FP. Hernández led the game's hitters at 12 hitting FP. De La Cruz had 7 hitting FP on the first-inning homer and the steal.

Fantasy points grade the box score. Dynamic pricing still has to deal with what traders will pay tomorrow. They move together. They are not the same number.

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*Sources: ESPN recap and box score, MLB.com Gameday wrap, MLB.com schedule, and AthX Engine scoring. Information only; not financial advice.*