Dodgers look to continue home mastery of Reds

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Sunday, June 11, 2017

LOS ANGELES -- The Los Angeles Dodgers will go for a sweep and their ninth consecutive victory at home over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.

Reds right-hander Tim Adleman (4-2, 4.42 ERA) will oppose Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-6, 4.08) in the series finale.

On Saturday, the Dodgers clinched their sixth straight series win over the Reds with a 5-4 victory on a walk-off double by shortstop Corey Seager, the first of his career on any level since he began playing baseball in 1997.

"Apparently I'm not very good at it. It took me 20 years to get one," Seager said.

Cincinnati (29-32) owns a 10-17 mark on the road. The Dodgers (38-25) are 24-10 at home, which is the second-best record in the majors, trailing the Arizona Diamondbacks, who are 25-9.

"We play well at home," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "We like being here and there is something to having that last at-bat. When you can run your closer out there (and) our best guys to extend the game and to give yourself that last at-bat, it's big.

"Even games when we're on the road and we're down, we feel we're still in games and we still play to the last out. It's a testimony to the guys in the clubhouse."

Adleman was solid in his last outing, fanning seven with two walks and allowing a run on three hits in seven innings in a 13-1 romp over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday. That was the contest Reds second baseman Scooter Gennett homered a club-record four times and drove in 10 runs.

Adleman has held opponents to four runs in his last three starts, allowing one hit in eight scoreless innings in a 5-2 victory May 26 against the Philadelphia Phillies.

In his lone start against the Dodgers, Adleman tossed five scoreless innings with three strikeouts, two walks and four hit batters on Aug. 20, 2016 at Cincinnati. Adleman also had a two-run double during the win.

"He's thrown the ball really well," Reds manager Bryce Price said. "He's been terrific. He's battled his tail off, he beat the Phillies in eight scoreless, he went in there against a really hot Toronto club and pitched well and then he came back and pitched a nice game at home against St. Louis.

"We could really use an infusion of his really good innings and keep it a short game on the back end."

In his last start, Ryu gave up four runs on seven hits in seven innings in a 4-2 defeat by the Washington Nationals on Monday. He struck out four and walked one.

Ryu is 2-1 with a 3.54 ERA in three career starts against the Reds. He hasn't faced them since June 11, 2014, when he allowed four runs on six hits in six innings and was handed the loss in a 5-0 setback. Ryu fanned five and walked two.

The Reds could get outfielder Adam Duvall back in the starting lineup. Duvall hasn't started in the past two games because of illness. He appeared as a pinch hitter in the ninth inning Saturday and flied out to left.