Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Hyun-Jin Ryu is back and so are his shutout innings as the Dodgers cruised to a series victory over the Diamondbacks by allowing minimal runs and hitting a bunch of homers in an 9-3 victory.
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Ryu is back from his IL stint for the vague neck soreness, which didn’t seem to slow him down at all. He went seven shutout innings, allowing just five singles and a walk while striking out four.
I mean he deserves this worship.
It’s literally mid-August and his ERA is 1.45.
Ryu’s job was made easier by the offense, who jumped on Mike Leake in the 1st. After Joc Pederson got hit by a pitch, Justin Turner and Cody Bellinger went back-to-back with their 18th and 38th home runs, respectively.
That made it 3-0 and they added on in the 2nd. A Matt Beaty single to start the inning was eventually cashed in on a Joc single to make it 4-0.
The Dodgers scored for the third inning in a row to start the game in the 3rd after Corey Seager roped a two-out double and Will Smith followed by hitting a towering homer, his 7th of the year, for a 6-0 lead.
After taking an inning off, they came back in the 5th with Turner starting things with his 19th dong of the year.
They would add another in the inning after back-to-back doubles from Bellinger and Seager led to a sac fly from the Fresh Prince to make it 8-0.
Unfortunately, after Ryu left the game, Yimi Garcia entered in the 8th and continued his dong-prone ways. He gave up a homer and a single in his inning of work to ruin the shutout.
Of course, the Dodgers ended up getting it back in the 8th. In fact, Yimi got it back. Facing position player Alex Avila, the Dodgers loaded the bases with nobody out behind an Edwin Rios single, Joc walk, and Max Muncy single. Yimi then grounded into a double play to plate a run and make it 9-1, but it’s fitting that he made two outs to do it.
The pen woes then continued in the 9th, when JT Chargois was tasked with protecting an 8-run lead. He promptly gave up a single and homer to cut the lead to 9-3, which hilariously led to Pedro Baez having to get up. Thankfully he didn’t have to come in as Chargois got out of it.
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The Dodgers improve to 79-41 with the victory. They lead the Diamondbacks by 19 games in the NL West, the Braves by 9 games in the NL, and the Yankees and Astros by 1 game in the MLB.
They have a day off tomorrow and will then travel to Miami to play the Marlins as part of a short six-game southeast road trip that also hits Atlanta and the Braves. They’ll start the series with the Marlins on Tuesday at 1:10 PM HST/4:10 PM PST/7:10 PM EST with Clayton Kershaw facing Jordan Yamamoto.
