Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
On Mother’s Day, the Dodgers and Nationals had another marquee matchup on hand with Stephen Strasburg squaring off against Hyun-Jin Ryu, which would be a comical thing to say just like two years ago. Both pitchers basically lived up to their billing, but it was Ryu who certainly won out in the end as the Dodgers took home a 6-0 victory to salvage a series split.
The offense couldn’t do much damage off Strasburg, but they did manage to manufacture offense. In the 2nd, Cody Bellinger walked and stole second, advanced to third on a grounder to second from Alex Verdugo, and then scored the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly from Corey Seager.
It was a similar story in the 4th, as Justin Turner singled with one out, Bellinger singled and advanced to second after JT went for and got third, and then Verdugo bounced a ball over Strasburg’s head for an out that scored JT and made it 2-0.
Of course, the story of the day was Ryu, who was coming off a Maddux in his last start. All he did today was follow that up by threatening to throw a no-hitter.
Ryu allowed just a walk to Brian Dozier through 7.1 innings, with this play from Bellinger being especially important to preserving the no-no.
Ryu was in control the entire game, but it was Gerardo Parra in the 7th with just five outs remaining who broke up the party with a double into the gap in left-center. Because of course it was him.
Thankfully, Ryu wasn’t deterred. He had to immediately settle because the game was still on the line and he did just that by bounding off the mound to field a bunt attempt for a hit and induce a routine fly out to end the threat. All told, he went eight shutout innings, allowing just the one hit and one walk, striking out nine and providing 116 pitches of quality.
Seager took the pressure off the game with a grand slam in the 8th following a JT hit by pitch, a Bellinger bloop single, and a Verdugo walk to start the inning, and hopefully it marks the start of his breakout.
Kenley Jansen also rebounded from his last outing, when he allowed a walk-off grand slam, with a 1-2-3 frame that included a strikeout to end it.
Things are looking up.
When you see the girl you like. pic.twitter.com/oz7xjZ4dsr
— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) May 12, 2019
The Dodgers are now 27-16 on the year (102-win pace) and are 3.5 games up in the NL West on the Diamondbacks, who are currently losing.
After a day off tomorrow, the Dodgers welcome the Padres at 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST with an exciting matchup of old and new between Clayton Kershaw and Chris Paddack.
