The Reds manager acknowledged the team's shortcomings in their 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night.
The Cincinnati Reds had a chance to extend their two-game winning streak to three against the Los Angeles Dodgers, but a combination of defensive woes handed them a 6-3 loss on Monday night.
Following the matchup, manager Terry Francona acknowledged the numerous walks allowed by Cincinnati's pitching staff as well as a fielding play initiated by Ke'Bryan Hayes that rookie Héctor Rodríguez couldn't execute on due to him overrunning the ball.
"Yeah, the walks really hurt us," Francona said in a postgame interview with MLB.com. "As far as him [Brandon Williamson] coming back, I thought he did pretty well. And it was a tough play, a real tough play, both ways. He [Hayes] had to rush, got a short hop to [first baseman] Sal [Stewart]...and it goes into no man's land. Héctor [Rodríguez] did a really good job of getting there, but he overran it. So we missed our chance for the last run."
The Reds struck early in the first as Elly De La Cruz crushed a solo homer to center field off L.A. starter Emmet Sheehan who silenced Cincinnati's bats from that point on until the sixth when he loaded the bases, prompting his removal from the game for reliever Alex Vesia who got JJ Bleday down looking to end the rally.
As a result, the error by Hayes would shift the momentum in the Dodgers' favor when Teoscar Hernández and Alex Call sprinted home to put L.A. ahead 2-1 during the fifth.
Cincinnati's struggles continued in the sixth when Williamson issued a pair of walks to Freddie Freeman and Max Muncy while Hernández made him pay for a hanging 83-mph changeup, launching a three-run shot to left and extending the lead to 5-1.
Eugenio Suárez responded in the seventh with a solo blast to center field while Dane Myers drove in Rodríguez with a groundout to bring the Reds within two during the eighth.
Even then, their efforts proved insufficient that same inning when a sacrifice fly by Will Smith brought home Muncy while Evan Phillips sealed the Reds' fate in the ninth with his first save of the season.
With the loss, Williamson has now compiled a 5.97 ERA and 1.67 WHIP while striking out 28 batters in 37.2 innings of work this season since making his return from Tommy John surgery that sidelined him for the rest of 2024 and all of 2025.
This was also the first time that 23-year-old standout Chase Burns saw a limited workload as he only pitched the first third of the game before Francona made the call to the bullpen for Williamson who took over the next 4.1 innings.
"It's hard to take him [Burns] out. That's not a fun thing, but it's the right thing," Francona said. "And I know he understands, but he was good. And I give him credit, too, because he approached it the right way. He just approached it like it was a regular game. And I told him, 'We'll get you out. Just pitch like you pitch.'"
As Cincinnati remains set on making a late push for the playoffs, cleaning up their fundamentals will be a must as they still rank fifth in the NL Central and are six games below .500.
The Reds will have their sights set on evening the series tonight at 10:10 p.m. EDT when left-hander Nick Lodolo takes the mound against Dodgers ace Tarik Skubal.
