Diamondbacks 3, Dodgers 1: Ryu does his job, but Baez and bats fail again

You know the deal by now.

The Dodgers entered today’s game against the Diamondbacks losers of 9 of their last 10 and four games in a row, and after a 3-1 extra-inning loss tonight, that’s up to 10 of their last 11 and five in a row.

It’s bad.

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After giving up six runs in four innings against the Diamondbacks in his previous start, Hyun-Jin Ryu bounced back emphatically, surrendering just one run over six innings tonight. Ryu didn’t even have his best command, as he walked five batters, but he did manage to avoid damage by allowing just three hits and striking out seven.

https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/905260024812814336

Ryu’s struggles with his fastball were a bit odd to me considering he’s pumping 92-93 mph when he wants, so I looked into it, and apparently the fastball doesn’t have the same life to it as it did before despite the velocity. Regardless, with the amount of swing and miss he’s getting on his off-speed stuff, he makes an intriguing postseason option.

Zack Greinke isn’t exactly the pitcher a struggling offensive team wants to run into, but that’s always the way it seems to go. He limited the offense to one run through seven innings, and he didn’t give them many opportunities to score.

The run came via Yasmani Grandal in the fifth, going down to get one for a solo shot, his 19th on the year.

In contrast to yesterday’s disaster by the pen, Ross Stripling entered in the seventh and gave the Dodgers two quality innings, striking out two batters and allowing just a single walk. That allowed Kenley Jansen to take the ball in the ninth, where he decided to make things dramatic by allowing a single and a walk, but got out of the inning without damage thanks to two strikeouts.

https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/905297710605111296

Not that it mattered, as the offense was limited to five hits and a walk on the night, and Pedro Baez was brought in for the 10th. He promptly issued back-to-back walks, and after a ground out, he had runners at second and third with one out. Both those runners scored on a bizarre play on a grounder to third, during which Justin Turner fielded it and threw home, but it either hit the runner or Grandal was screened because he certainly didn’t catch it.

Tony Watson then entered in relief and got two outs without much trouble, but who cares, really?

If Dave Roberts doesn’t demote Baez to middle relief duty for the rest of the year, and if the front office don’t leave him off the postseason roster, then they honestly never will.

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Ryu was also fortunate to not get hurt on this comebacker…

…but since he wasn’t hurt, I can point out that his reaction was good as hell.

https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/905273328138543104

The broadcast was having bizarre issues all game long, providing some interesting sequences.

Sportsnet parties hard pic.twitter.com/ZqNz7dUVnh

— MLB Insider Dinger (@atf13atf) September 6, 2017

Greinke might’ve been good today, but he also did this.

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92-46 on the year and 52-18 at home. Somehow the Dodgers are still up 11.5 games in the NL West and the magic number is just 13. The race for the best record in baseball is down to seven games after the Astros won tonight.

The Dodgers and Diamondbacks complete the three-game set tomorrow at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST. Kenta Maeda (4.19 ERA/4.02 FIP/4.03 DRA) will take the bump, squaring off against Taijuan Walker (3.42 ERA/4.04 FIP/3.96 DRA).