Michael Grove rocked by Reds to cap dismal month for Dodgers pitchers

A Sunday afternoon crowd of 45,936 in Chavez Ravine had plenty of time to get what will likely be their last look at rookie right-hander Michael Grove for a while.

Grove was rocked for eight runs and 10 hits — three of them homers — in six innings of a 9-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds that sent the Dodgers to their 10th straight Sunday loss — a peculiar stretch of first-of-the-week games in which they’ve been outscored 73-33 — and fourth loss in six games on this homestand.

Rookie phenom Elly De La Cruz singled to spark a three-run Reds rally in the first inning and crushed a solo homer that left his bat at 111.3 mph and traveled 411 feet to right field for a 4-0 lead in the second.

Former UCLA standout Matt McLain led off the third inning with a homer to left field, Jake Fraley singled, and Joey Votto hit a 418-foot, two-run homer to right to extend Cincinnati’s lead to 7-0.

Grove did well to save some wear and tear on the bullpen by pitching three more innings, and he flashed a plus-slider while accumulating a career-high 10 strikeouts and 95 pitches, but he is not expected to remain in a Dodgers rotation that will look a lot different a week from now.

Veteran right-hander Lance Lynn, acquired with reliever Joe Kelly from the Chicago White Sox on Friday, will make his Dodgers debut Tuesday night against the Oakland Athletics, and he will be followed in the rotation by Tony Gonsolin and Julio Urías.

Clayton Kershaw, sidelined since late-June because of a sore shoulder, threw about 40 pitches to hitters in a three-inning simulated game on Saturday, and as long as the three-time National League Cy Young Award winner remains asymptomatic, he is expected to return for this weekend’s series in San Diego.

Asked on Sunday to peg the odds of Kershaw, who has pitched through numerous ailments over the years, telling him he is not ready, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “Um … probably zero.”

Dodgers starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw walks on the field at Dodger Stadium before Sunday’s game against the Reds.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

That leaves rookie right-handers Bobby Miller, Emmet Sheehan and Grove to vie for one spot in an injury-ravaged rotation that has a 6.18 ERA in July, the second-worst ERA in any month for the club since the earned run became an official National League statistic in 1912.

The hard-throwing Miller has been the most consistent of the three, going 6-2 with a 4.37 ERA in 11 starts, striking out 59 and walking 16 in 59 ⅔ innings.

Sheehan is 3-1 with a 5.77 ERA in seven starts, striking out 27 and walking 17 in 34 ⅓ innings, but he rebounded from a rocky three-start stretch in which he gave up 17 earned runs and 17 hits in 12 ⅓ innings with a five-inning, no-run, two-hit effort in Saturday night’s 3-2 win over the Reds.

Grove, who is 2-3 with a 6.75 ERA in 15 games — 12 of them starts — all but sealed a demotion to triple-A Oklahoma City with Sunday’s performance, so the fifth rotation spot will likely come down to Miller or Sheehan.

“There’s a lot of things going on, and players nowadays are more in tune with that than they’ve ever been,” Roberts said. “But the bottom line is we’re trying to win, we need to win, and the best players are going to play, so performance is paramount.”

Pitching isn’t the team’s only concern. The Dodgers, who managed only five hits in six scoreless innings against Reds right-hander Graham Ashcraft, also played most of Sunday’s game without three of their top five hitters.

Mookie Betts, who is batting .277 with a .943 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 27 homers and 68 RBIs, missed his second straight game because of a sore ankle, but Roberts expects the dynamic leadoff man to return Tuesday night.

Designated hitter J.D. Martinez, who is batting .260 with an .872 OPS, 25 homers and 75 RBIs, was in Sunday’s lineup but was pulled before he could make a plate appearance because of left-hamstring tightness.

And catcher Will Smith, who is batting .279 with an .862 OPS, 13 homers and 53 RBIs, was hit by a pitch in the first inning and pulled in the fourth because of a left-elbow contusion.