Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After taking three series in a row to get right back into the NL West race, the Dodgers dropped the rubber match today against the Mets to end that streak. It was a veritable cornucopia of defensive fuckery and shitty luck, plus they couldn’t hit either, and so the Dodgers fell 7-3.
——
Hyun-Jin Ryu took the hill today, the same day that The Athletic ran my article on his resurgence. Given that the last time I was about to write about him, Ryu went out and tore muscle of the bone in his groin, I was prepared for disaster. Boy did I get it.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/1037416363222958080
After cruising through a perfect three innings, the Dodgers Digest curse struck … sorta. Ryu gave up a clean single and double to get himself in trouble, but then a run came on a weakly-hit grounder right back to him that he kicked for an infield single. That put runners at the corners, but he rebounded by getting a strikeout, and then appeared to get out of the inning. A fly ball to shallow left in foul territory led to the second out, and Joc Pederson appeared to throw out the runner tagging at third by a good few steps to end things, but Yasmani Grandal was unable to hold the ball.
Then, because of course, Austin Jackson followed with a jam-shot single down the line in right to drive in another and got caught trying for a double to end the mess.
Trouble struck again in the 4th, as Ryu allowed a clean lead-off double and runners were at the corners after another jam-shot single up the middle. He rebounded again with a strikeout, but another run scored on a bloop single to right that Alex Verdugo couldn’t glove. Still, he got the second out of the frame and then seemed to get out of it after inducing a weak pop to short, but Enrique Hernandez couldn’t glove it this time and it fell for another single and another run. Ryu followed with a strikeout to escape the inning, but the damage was done.
In the end, Ryu gave up a whopping 11 hits in his six innings of work, including three earned runs and five runs total. Realistically though, it could’ve very easily been only one run if the Dodgers made plays on defense. The fact that he walked nobody and struck out eight batters was far more indicative of how Ryu pitched today, because if he was bad then he was bad, but I really thought he was effective.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/1037507995595300864
Not much you can do about that.
Speaking of which, Ryan Madson took over in the 7th and was immediately greeted by a pop-up that Brian Dozier misplayed for a single. Another pop-up single fell in behind third to get a rally started, but Madson rebounded to get two outs and put him on the verge of escaping. Unfortunately, he allowed a soft liner for another single to plate a run, and threw a wild pitch to plate another before getting out of the frame.
https://twitter.com/ChadMoriyama/status/1037513414489268224
Meanwhile, Zack Wheeler has been one of the hottest starters in the majors, and none of the first 11 batters the Dodgers sent to the plate did anything. But they got a couple back when Justin Turner singled off Wheeler’s ribs and Max Muncy followed by hitting an absolutely massive shot to right-center field, his 32nd of the year.
No. 32 for Max. pic.twitter.com/aHIH7Bl7HA
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 6, 2018
Cody Bellinger continued to show signs of life when he hit a towering dong down the right-field line in the 7th for his 22nd of the season.
https://twitter.com/Dodgers/status/1037517955674718208
That was about it offensively though, as comedy of fielding blunders aside, they totaled just three hits and two walks tonight.
Anyway, Pat Venditte got a scoreless 8th, just allowing a hit batsman. Then Kenley Jansen finished things up in the 9th, mainly because he needs the work since he won’t be going to Colorado for the series with the Rockies. Jansen got a scoreless frame with two strikeouts and an infield pop. Promising.
——
The Dodgers fall back to 76-64 on the year and just 39-36 at home. They are now a game behind the Rockies (playing now) in the NL West.
After a day off to travel to Colorado, the Dodgers start a pivotal three-game series with the Rockies at Satan Field. Luckily, they sent Clayton Kershaw to the bump to start things off, and he’ll face Jon Gray starting at 2:40 PM HST/5:40 PM PST/8:40 PM EST.
