Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After cruising to a 10-2 victory over the Pirates yesterday, the Dodgers generally coasted to a series victory with a 7-2 win in the second game of the three-game set.
The start of the game was delayed by around two hours by rain, but it didn’t seem to impact much.
Just like last night, the Dodgers got off to a quick start. Joc Pederson continued to torment Joe Musgrove, leading the game off with a double. He then advanced to third on a ground out and was plated on a single by Corey Seager.
They scored again in the 3rd, this time behind a one-out double from Muncy and then a two-out single from Cody Bellinger.
The assault continued in the 4th, but this time from an unlikely source. Chris Taylor seemingly turned the game around with two outs in the frame, working a 10-pitch at-bat that eventually resulted in a single. Hyun-Jin Ryu then saw seven pitches himself, which he capped off by crushing a double off the wall in right-center field.
The Dodgers proceeded to blow the game open in the 5th, starting things with three doubles in a row from Muncy, Seager, and Bellinger to plate two runs. After an out that advanced Bellinger to third, Russell Martin came up with a sacrifice fly to drive in another and make it six runs on the night.
The offense completed their scoring with a run in the 6th to make it seven runs, as CT3 lead-off with a double, was sacrificed to third, and then scored on a Joc single.
On the other end of things was Ryu, who came into today riding a scoreless inning streak. That came to an end relatively quickly after he was victimized a bit by the defense.
Ryu gave up a double to start the 2nd, but on a roller in front of the plate that seemed made to get the runner at third, Martin instead threw it into left to score the runner and put another on second with nobody out.
Ryu then allowed two more singles in the inning for another run before getting out of the jam, but he could’ve escaped without allowing anything had that play been made. Unfortunate.
Regardless, Ryu was lucky today to not give up more than that, as he surrendered 10 hits in his six innings of work. He only struck out three and didn’t walk anybody but was forced to constantly work out of jams, and thankfully he managed to do exactly that.
Didn’t hurt that he had Cody making plays like this behind him.
Julio Urias then made his first appearance since his arrest, and honestly the Dodgers didn’t have much of a choice but to use him after the MLB reinstated him. He certainly didn’t seem distracted, striking out two over two shutout innings in which he allowed just one hit.
Scott Alexander then finished the game off with a scoreless inning of his own in 1-2-3 fashion.
The victory makes the Dodgers now 34-18 on the season, a 106-win pace, and helps them maintain a 6-game lead of the Padres in the NL West.
The Dodgers will go for a sweep tomorrow in a little bit more than 12 hours at 7:35 AM HST/10:35 AM PST/1:35 PM EST with Kenta Maeda (RHP/3.51 ERA/3.78 FIP/4.05 DRA) coming off the IL to face Chris Archer (RHP/5.55 ERA/5.20 FIP/5.19 DRA). Or at least that’s the plan, but basically everybody thinks it’ll be delayed due to rain or something.
