Andy Pages hit two homers and drove in four runs, Emmet Sheehan tied his career high with 10 strikeouts and the Los Angeles Dodgers earned a 7-0 victory over the visiting Cincinnati Reds on Monday in the opener of a three-game series.
Sheehan (5-2) did not allow a run over a career-best seven innings. He permitted two hits and one walk. Jack Dreyer and Anthony Banda each threw an inning to complete a three-hit shutout.
Mookie Betts added a home run for the Dodgers, who returned from a 3-4 road trip to Colorado and San Diego and used the victory to move back into sole possession of first place in the National League West.
Hunter Greene (5-4) gave up five runs (three earned) over five-plus innings for the Reds, who are 3-4 on a nine-game three-city road trip that ends Wednesday. The Los Angeles native issued two walks and struck out three.
The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Pages hit a home run off Greene into the home bullpen in left field.
Pages followed a Michael Conforto double in the fifth inning with his second home run of the game and 23rd of the season, also to left.
Los Angeles padded its lead in the sixth. With the bases loaded and two outs, Pages hit what appeared to be an inning-ending grounder to shortstop. However, the ball went between the legs of the Reds’ Elly De La Cruz to score two runs for a 5-0 lead.
Sheehan’s 10th strikeout came against Spencer Steer for the second out of the seventh inning. Betts then made a diving stop in the hole at shortstop, and his throw to first completed seven innings for the right-hander.
Betts celebrated with a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh, his 14th of the season and third in 16 games. Pages drove in another run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly.
The Reds’ Gavin Lux, who helped the Dodgers win the World Series last year and played five seasons in Los Angeles, received his championship ring in a pregame ceremony. Lux doubled for one of Cincinnati’s three hits.
