James Paxton delivers strong six innings, helps Dodgers beat visiting Reds

James Paxton, control freak? That moniker would not have fit the veteran left-hander in his first month with the Dodgers, when Paxton had more walks (22) than strikeouts (15) in 25 ⅔ innings over his first five starts.

But Paxton found some rhythm in his delivery and the strike zone in the process, delivering his second straight start of six innings and zero walks to position the Dodgers for an eventual 7-3 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in front of a crowd of 46,832 at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

Paxton gave up three earned runs and seven hits in six innings, striking out two and walking none in a 92-pitch start. He left after giving up a leadoff single in the seventh inning with the score tied 3-3, a deadlock the Dodgers quickly ended with two runs in each of the seventh and eighth innings.

Kiké Hernández led off the bottom of the seventh with a single to center field off reliever Fernando Cruz. Mookie Betts struck out, and Shohei Ohtani grounded to first baseman Jeimer Candelario, who threw to second for the second out.

Read more: Dodgers roster moves: Jason Heyward returns to lineup, Max Muncy joins injured list

Reds shortstop Elly De La Cruz didn’t have a chance to double up the speedy Ohtani, but he fired a throw toward first base anyway. Bad decision. The errant throw sailed into the camera well next to the first base dugout, allowing Ohtani to take second.

The Reds opted to walk Freddie Freeman intentionally to pitch to Will Smith, who smacked a first-pitch fastball into center field for an RBI single and a 4-3 lead. Freeman went from first to third on the hit and scored on a wild pitch for a 5-3 lead.

Andy Pages hit a one-out single to left off Reds closer Alex Díaz in the eighth, and Jason Heyward, who was activated from the injured list earlier Friday after sitting out six weeks because of a lower-back injury, hit a towering two-run homer just inside the right-field foul pole for a 7-3 lead.

Michael Grove, Blake Treinen and Daniel Hudson each pitched a scoreless inning of relief for the Dodgers, who ended a two-game losing streak.

Betts opened the bottom of the first with a home run to left field off Reds starter Frankie Montas, the 51st career leadoff homer for the Dodgers shortstop, who ranks fifth on baseball’s all-time list behind Rickey Henderson (81), George Springer (57), Alfonso Soriano (54) and Craig Biggio (53).

Read more: Dodgers pitcher Emmet Sheehan has season-ending Tommy John surgery

The Dodgers extended the lead to 3-0 in the third when Kiké Hernández led off with a single to right-center, Betts grounded into a fielder’s choice and Ohtani drove a 95-mph fastball on the outer half of the plate over the short left-field wall for an opposite-field two-run homer, his 13th of the season.

Paxton needed only 27 pitches to navigate the first three innings, which featured a pair of smooth double plays started by second baseman Gavin Lux in the second and third, but he ran into some turbulence during a 25-pitch fourth.

Jonathan India led off with a single to center, took second on a wild pitch and third on De La Cruz’s grounder to second. India scored on Spencer Steer’s grounder to shortstop to trim the deficit to 3-1, Steer reaching when Betts’ throw pulled Freeman off the first base bag.

Candelario singled to left to put two on with two outs, but Paxton got Mike Ford to chase an 85-mph cut-fastball that was off the plate for an inning-ending strikeout.

Read more: Dodgers don’t go with bullpen game after all but still fall to Giants and Logan Webb

The Reds trimmed the lead to 3-2 in the fifth when Stuart Fairchild smacked an 84-mph cutter over the wall in left-center for a leadoff homer, his third of the season.

Cincinnati tied the score 3-3 in the sixth when Tyler Stephenson got just enough of Paxton’s 81-mph, full-count knuckle-curve to send a 375-foot two-out homer to left.

Sticky situation

Roberts said he was “a little irritated” when crew chief Bill Miller, the plate umpire for Thursday night’s game, summoned the other three umpires to check the throwing hand of Dodgers pitcher Tyler Glasnow for sticky substances as the right-hander came off the mound after the second inning of a 7-2 loss to the Reds.

Glasnow had a dark spot on the thumb and some discoloration in the palm of his hand, but the umpires did not detect any illegal substances.

“The point of the rule is to prevent sticky substances, so if your hand is not sticky, then I see no problem,” Roberts said. “If there’s an issue with just discoloration and it’s not sticky, then there will be a problem [with such extreme checks], because that’s not how it’s supposed to be. Sticky stuff is what we’re trying to guard against.”

Glasnow said his hand is discolored every time he throws off the mound, in a bullpen workout or a game, because he mixes rosin with a baseball that is rubbed in dirt. But he was not as perturbed by the sticky stuff check as Roberts was.

“[Miller] came up and said, ‘Hey, I need the other umpires to check,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s fine, what’s the problem?’ ” Glasnow said on Friday. “He goes, ‘It’s just black.’ And I was like, ‘Is it sticky?’ And he goes, ‘No, it’s not sticky.’ And then [the other umpires] came up and checked and they said it’s fine, it’s just black.”

Did Glasnow become nervous when Miller called for backup?

“No, because I know there was no sticky stuff on my hand,” Glasnow said. “I think if you ever look or zoom in on any pitcher who uses rosin on the baseball, your hand will have the ink of the baseball and the dirt on the baseball on the hand in some way. So I wasn’t necessarily worried. There was no substance. It was just black.”

Sign up for more Dodgers news with Dodgers Dugout. Delivered at the start of each series.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.