Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers have continued their red-hot form into June, as they won their seventh game in a row and their 11th in their last 12 after prevailing 9-0 over the Diamondbacks.
This is pleasant.
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The story of basically any Hyun-Jin Ryu start nowadays has to begin with the man himself because he’s consistently excellent and that certainly continued tonight.
Things almost started with disaster as Ryu got two outs in the 1st but then was victimized by back-to-back errors before getting out of the jam. The extra pitches probably cost him another inning, but thankfully that was it.
Other than errors, the only baserunner that got past first base came on a double in the 3rd. He only struck out two but it was a clinic in weak contact on the ground, inducing 19 balls hit on the ground and 4 balls hit in the air on the night. Ryu ended up going seven shutout innings, allowing three hits and no walks. That’s now 50 scoreless innings in his last 51.
At least he had the leader for the NL MVP on his side.
It helped Ryu that the offense jumped out to an early lead, and they started in the first with a Joc Pederson single and a Max Muncy walk. Then with one out, Cody Bellinger stepped up and took what was an almost off-balance swing to crush a ball off the wall in center for a bases-clearing triple to make it 2-0.
They got a bit fortunate in the 3rd, as Joc started with a walk and Corey Seager smashed a ball to second that was booted and led to him reaching. After a fly out advanced Joc and put runners on the corners, a Taylor Clarke pick-off attempt was wild and scored Joc to make it 3-0.
Dodgers added more runs in the 7th, starting with Enrique Hernandez, who led the frame off with 10th dong of the year.
Russell Martin followed with a single and was sacrificed to second by Ryu, then Chris Taylor pinch-hit and was intentionally walked. With two down, Seager absolutely smashed a double off the wall in right to plate another run and make it 5-0.
For good measure they continued to tack runs on in the 8th, as David Freese started with a double and Enrique drove in another with a one-out single to make it 6-0.
Taking over for Ryu, Yimi Garcia got a 1-2-3 frame in the 8th, getting a ground out, strikeout, and fly out, all of the routine variety.
Insurance for the Dodgers came in the 9th as Taylor doubled to start and Seager plated him with a one-out ground-rule double to left-center.
After they intentionally walked Cody, Freese came through yet again with a double down the line in right to plate two and make it 9-0.
That was enough for Scott Alexander at least, who got a scoreless 9th but did give up a walk cause of course.
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This is the only L they’re taking lately.
Organizational support. pic.twitter.com/L6K9XhbeRa
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) June 5, 2019
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The Dodgers are now 43-19 on the season, still a 112-win pace, and a 10.5-game lead on the Rockies in the NL West. They’re also now 1.5 games ahead of the Twins for the best record in baseball.
The sweep will be on the line tomorrow afternoon at 9:40 AM HST/12:40 PM PST/3:40 PM EST and will see Kenta Maeda (RHP/3.61 ERA/4.06 FIP/3.35 DRA) facing another rookie in Jon Duplantier (RHP/3.18 ERA/3.22 FIP/3.90 DRA), who will be making his second career start.
