Greene celebrates gem, Reds' series win with furry friend

CINCINNATI -- Reds starting pitcher Hunter Greene brought his new best buddy to the interview room after his game vs. the Dodgers on Saturday night. It was Ross, a French bulldog puppy, who was wearing a Reds T-shirt and taking in the scene.

“Did I do OK?” Greene asked Ross.

No surprise, Ross did not reply.

Take it from the sold-out crowd at Great American Ball Park. Greene did more than OK during his six-inning performance for a 3-1 Reds win over the Dodgers.

“He threw a lot of strikes and kept it out of the middle of the plate, got himself out of jams. He’s a good pitcher," Dodgers shortstop Mookie Betts said. "So I mean, that’s going to stand out about him.”

The victory gave Cincinnati (22-30) two things it desperately needed -- a first series win since sweeping the Angels from April 19-21, and back-to-back wins for the first time since April 23-24 against the Phillies. Philadelphia has the best record in baseball and the Dodgers have the second-best record in the National League.

Going into this series, which concludes Sunday, the Reds had dropped 17 of 21 games and were a season-worst 10 games under .500.

"No matter what’s happened through a tough time where we’ve struggled, the confidence has remained," Reds manager David Bell said. "The belief in what we’re capable of has really showed up.

"We know what we went through for a few weeks. You survive that. You get through it and all of a sudden, things can shift around.”

While throwing 107 pitches, Greene gave up one earned run and five hits with one walk and five strikeouts. He has a 1.95 ERA over his last six starts and improved to 3-2 with a 3.06 ERA in 11 starts overall.

Greene had multiple impressive moments vs. Los Angeles, including his first two encounters against Shohei Ohtani. Two at-bats, eight pitches -- all strikes -- and two strikeouts. Greene almost made it look easy.

In the top of the first inning, Greene got Ohtani looking at an 87 mph splitter for a called third strike. In the third, Ohtani fouled off Greene's first four pitches before he whiffed on an 88 mph splitter.

“Hunter was absolutely amazing tonight," said Will Benson, who hit a two-out solo homer to left field in the second inning for the go-ahead run. "In center field, you get the better view in the house. He was locating a lot of his pitches. He was able to use that splitter to his advantage, especially against the lefties and Ohtani. He was really executing.”

Last Sunday at L.A. against Greene, Ohtani was 0-for-2 with a strikeout and was hit by a pitch.

"It’s something that, in the past few starts, he’s really kind of thrown a lot more," catcher Tyler Stephenson said of Greene's splitter. "It’s been used in some big moments, too.”

There were also eight other Dodgers hitters to contend with.

The Dodgers’ second inning began with two softer hits from Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández, followed by a Gavin Lux walk to load the bases with no outs. Greene induced a run-scoring double play to second base from Jason Heyward to make it a 1-1 game.

On Greene's 32nd pitch of the inning, a groundout by Kiké Hernández ended the threat.

“It’s huge," Greene said. "I think it’s big for the team to be able to keep that momentum on our side. My headspace has been trying to stay present, take one pitch at a time and just compete.”

Greene had 94 pitches through five innings and had the top three of the Dodgers’ order before him for the sixth -- Betts, Ohtani and Freddie Freeman. Bell wanted Greene back on the mound.

“He’s going to keep getting opportunities to do that," Bell said. "First of all, he pitched a great game up to that point against this team, and he got better as he went. The pitch count was manageable. Mainly, we wanted him out there for the sixth, the toughest part of the order.”

After Betts grounded out, Ohtani hit a 1-1 splitter for a one-out triple to right field, but Greene was able to leave him stranded when Freeman flied out to left and Smith popped out to second base.

“I was just trying to finish and finish strong," said Greene, who got 23 whiffs on 60 swings overall. "I was telling myself, ‘It’s my game,’ and I wanted that finish.”