LOS ANGELES -- Behind Scott Kazmir's 12 strikeouts, the Dodgers continued their dominance of the Reds, completing a three-game sweep with a 3-1 victory at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Dodgers have now won nine straight matchups against the Reds, whose losing streak extended to 10 games.
"It was good to play some clean baseball," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. "Obviously that team over there, they're struggling right now. For us to take care of business was good to see."
Kazmir limited Cincinnati to just one run through six innings and came one strikeout shy of his career high, set on Aug. 25, 2007 with Tampa Bay. It was the third time in his career that he's fanned 12 or more.
• Kazmir's dominance lets bats have an off night

Dan Straily, who's been the Reds' most reliable starter this season, couldn't put a halt to his club's losing skid. Straily surrendered three runs over seven innings and nearly kept pace with Kazmir in strikeouts, matching his career-high with 11. It was also the first time he's completed seven innings this season.
"Pretty much any time I wanted to throw a fastball outside, it was there," Straily said. "Trying to get deeper in the ballgame, and tonight I was able to get one more. It's a continued process, trying to go as deep as possible and build up as many zeros as possible."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Take the good, take the bad: Several swings of fortune took place with a deep drive by Jay Bruce in the fourth. The ball looked like it might leave the yard before narrowly eluding a running Joc Pederson's glove and hitting off the center-field wall. Pederson hit the wall and crashed to the ground as the ball rolled away, spurring Bruce to go for an inside-the-park home run. Left fielder Howie Kendrick gathered the ball and hit cutoff man Chase Utley, who fired the ball to catcher Yasmani Grandal in time to cut down Bruce at home plate. The Reds settled for a 1-0 lead as Brandon Phillips scored on the RBI triple.
"It was a good send. It was a bang-bang play. They had to do everything right," Reds manager Bryan Price said. "They got the ball to Utley, who caught it in shallow center and fired a strike to the plate. Grandal hung on to it, and it was a close play. Everything had to go right. They executed, we executed. We can't be conservative offensively."
Pederson was shaken up but remained in the game.
"Definitely didn't feel good hitting the wall," Pederson said. "When I got up, my leg was hurt a little bit, but I shook it off and then finished the game."

Straily drops duel: After Straily retired the first nine batters he faced, the Dodgers finally got to him when Utley led off the fourth inning with a single. Three batters later -- a hit-by-pitch, a walk and a strikeout -- and the bases were loaded for Pederson, who stepped into the box just 1-for-12 in his career with the bags full. Pederson delivered this time, lining a two-run single into right field to give the Dodgers a 2-1 lead.
"I thought I made the pitch, and he just went down and got it," Straily said. "It's one of those things where you wish they could have hit it a little bit harder so it would hang up. To his credit, he hit the pitch I wanted to throw." More >

Grandal goes deep: Grandal offered the Dodgers some breathing room, extending the lead to 3-1 with a solo homer in the fifth. The home run snapped Grandal out of an 0-for-11 slump. The catcher is batting just .117 (7-for-60) this month.

LA 'pen perfect again: After a shaky week against the Angels and Padres, the Dodgers' bullpen bounced back with three hitless innings from Louis Coleman, Pedro Baez and Kenley Jansen. That's after 4 1/3 scoreless from the relief corps in Tuesday's win.
"I think we just got mentally tougher," said Jansen, who picked up his 14th save on Wednesday. "You could see it on Sunday night. We played 17 innings. ... That showed us everything right there. For us to come and shut this series down was great."

WHAT'S NEXT
Reds: The Reds will get a day off on Thursday before they head out to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers on Friday. Left-hander John Lamb will get the start, with first pitch scheduled for 8:10 p.m. ET.
Dodgers: After a stretch of 20 games in 20 days, the Dodgers have an off-day on Thursday before beginning a seven-game road trip through New York and Chicago. Alex Wood will start at 4:10 p.m. PT on Friday vs. the Mets at Citi Field, coming off a 13-strikeout performance in San Diego.
The opener, an MLB Network Showcase game, can be seen free on MLB.TV and will feature MLB Plus -- MLB.com's data-driven online broadcast that uses Statcast™ and other analytical and broadcast elements to deliver an in-depth discussion about both the action on the field and the big picture.
Watch every out-of-market regular-season game live on MLB.TV.