On the 11th pitch of the at-bat, after fouling off seven consecutive sinkers, Yasiel Puig manipulated his bat so that the barrel connected with the baseball. The exit velocity clocked at 111.8 mph, hard enough to clear the loaded bases in front of him and drag the Dodgers within a run of their last-place hosts. A hit might salvage the night.
The Dodgers had stumbled through this game much like they have stumbled through this season. There was little good fortune awaiting them. The liner off Puig’s bat sizzled into the glove of Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez, who flipped the baseball to second base to end the seventh inning of a 10-6 Dodgers loss.