CINCINNATI -- Friday was truly a game of inches inside the hitter’s paradise known as Great American Ball Park. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, it was the Reds who made the most of their breaks in a 9-6 win before a full house on the Ohio River.

The Dodgers got three hits and a walk from Mookie Betts, who snapped out of a 4-for-22 slump. They got home runs from Will Smith and Teoscar Hernández. They battled back from an early 3-0 hole.

But the Dodgers also ran into some poor luck, as Stuart Fairchild took extra bases away from Betts in the sixth and Smith in the seventh. Meanwhile, the Reds caught a couple of breaks on offense. Spencer Steer’s first-inning homer cleared the wall by a foot to give the Reds a 3-0 lead on starter James Paxton. Fairchild hit a homer off the left-field foul pole to start a six-run rally in the fifth.

“The offense was good,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of his club’s six runs and 11 hits. “You know, Fairchild out there in center field. He took some extra bases away from Mookie, from Will, robbed a homer.

“We had some really good at-bats [and] could have scored more runs. But offensively, I thought that we played a heck of a ballgame.”

Freddie Freeman was one of five batters hit by pitches Friday night. Freeman, plunked in the forearm by Lucas Sims with two outs in the eighth to load the bases, said he was “completely fine” after the game, and Roberts expects Freeman to play Saturday.

“Sometimes, guys can’t find it,” Freeman said, dismissing any potential tension. “Just hit by pitches. Part of the game. Get on base.”

On the mound, Paxton gave up a season-high five runs on five hits and couldn’t get through the fifth. The left-hander entered the night 5-0 with a 2.84 ERA. The Dodgers had won all but one of his previous eight starts.

“Yeah, it's frustrating,” Roberts said. “Certainly, I don't think James had his best stuff. I think he was trying to find it all night long, with the four walks and four-plus innings and the pitches kept getting up, and I just didn't think he had great command tonight.”

Paxton never had command of his cutter and didn’t throw it on Friday.

“I was fighting myself in the first, for sure,” Paxton said. “I didn't really find a rhythm, and then I feel like it got better as the game went on a little bit. And then in the fifth, I kind of lost it a little bit again.”

Working with a two-run lead, Paxton gave up the leadoff homer to Fairchild, making it his second straight start against the Reds with two homers allowed. Paxton got two outs before a walk to Steer ended his night.

Then, the bullpen faltered.

Yohan Ramírez hit Tyler Stephenson and Nick Martini, with the Martini HBP forcing in the game-tying run. Ramírez walked one in between as he threw 13 pitches -- just one for a strike.

“I'm still trying to learn Yohan,” Roberts said. “But I still don't feel it was too much of a leverage spot. I think that was a good spot for him and we just didn't get it done tonight.”

Left-hander Alex Vesia then came on and gave up a grand slam to the right-handed-hitting Jonathan India on a full count as the Reds took a 9-5 lead. Vesia had not allowed an earned run in his last 14 outings over 15 1/3 innings.

“You're trying to bridge to get to leverage guys and you feel that [Elieser] Hernández can go out there and get one of the next two guys and limit damage, and it just didn't work out that way,” Roberts said.

As it turned out, Hernández did pitch a scoreless eighth, but by then the damage had been done and the Dodgers lost their third straight game.