Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
That went about as well as could be expected. The Dodgers had a comfortable 6-0 victory on Friday night in Arizona behind great performances from Hyun-Jin Ryu and Adrian Gonzalez.
Ryu, starting for the first time in a week, threw seven scoreless innings, allowed two hits, walked one and struck out eight Diamondback hitters. He threw 99 pitches (70 strikes) in his seven innings. He showed no ill effects from his toenail injury. His velocity was on-par with his season average to date (90.9 MPH tonight, 90.7 MPH on the season), and he topped out at 93.1 MPH. He mixed his pitches well, throwing just 56 fastballs, 19 sliders, 16 changeups and eight curveballs. He had all his pitches working on this evening.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a Dodger game without some kind of injury — even though it’s minor.
Don Mattingly said (per TV) Hyun-jin Ryu got “a little funny bone thing” on the comebacker to the mound in 7th inning, but that Ryu is fine
— Eric Stephen (@truebluela) April 12, 2014
Sounds like he’ll be OK. Jamey Wright threw two scoreless innings of relief to close out the game.
Gonzalez got things going right away in the first inning, turning on a Brandon McCarthy fastball and hitting a no-doubter to right field. He followed that up with a 2-run single and an RBI single. In fact, the only at-bat in which he didn’t get a hit was when Paul Goldschmidt (whom the Dodgers, somehow, kept off base) made a diving stop on a liner down the line. It was Gonzalez’s best game of the season, logging three hits and five RBIs.
Hanley Ramirez chipped in three hits of his own, scoring three runs and driving in Yasiel Puig (who went 1-for-4 with a double in his return to the lineup) in the eighth inning.
Dee Gordon continued his hot hitting, chipping in two singles and a stolen base out of the No. 8 spot in the lineup. Juan Uribe had a rough night at the plate, grounding into two double plays. But he made a great play in the field and is the early leader in defensive runs saved for the Dodgers (+4).
The Dodgers send Zack Greinke to the hill on Saturday to face Wade Miley. Expect a different lineup than the one that was out there on Friday. First pitch is at 5:10 p.m. AHT. The Dodgers are now 7-4, while the Diamondbacks fall to 4-9.
