Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
After five consecutive walk-off wins at home, it’s been hard to rule out any outcome with this team. However, thankfully the Dodgers went ahead and cruised to a comfortable 5-1 victory over the Padres for their fourth consecutive win that makes them the first team in the majors to 60 wins.
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Hyun-Jin Ryu was back on the mound after getting shelled at Coors Field, and he unsurprisingly went back to business as usual since he wasn’t pitching on the moon any longer.
He delivered six shutout innings, allowing just three singles and striking out five. Horrifyingly though, he allowed three walks.
As he is slated to start the All-Star Game, it seems Dave Roberts wanted him to get some rest, as he was removed after just 89 pitches. Makes sense.
On the other side of the ball, the Dodgers got the scoring started in the 2nd behind Max Muncy‘s 21st dong of the year, crushed into the second deck.
Things were then quiet until the 5th when they loaded the bases behind a Matt Beaty single and then back-to-back walks to Chris Taylor and Russell Martin. After Ryu struck out, Joc Pederson got hit by a pitch to force a run in and then Alex Verdugo plated another with a sacrifice fly to make it 3-0.
In the 6th, they picked up where they left off. Cody Bellinger started the fun by missiling his 30th ding dong of the year into right.
After Muncy was hit by a pitch, Enrique Hernandez reached on an infield single and both runners advanced on a throwing error. That allowed CT3 to drive another run in with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0.
In the 7th, Dylan Floro relieved Ryu and got a 1-2-3 frame. He didn’t allow a ball on the infield and tallied a strikeout in the process. The 8th wasn’t as easy, as Zac Rosscup continued his questionable Dodgers career, getting a strikeout, but also allowing a run (unearned, apparently cause of a passed ball) on two singles to cut the lead to 5-1.
That brought in JT Chargois who got back-to-back strikeouts to prevent things from escalating. Chargois was also given the 9th in order to preserve the back-end arms in the pen, and he struck out the side, making him five-for-five tonight.
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The Dodgers improve to 60-29 on the year, which is a 109-win pace. They lead the Rockies by 14.5 games in the NL West, the Braves by 7.5 in the NL, and the Yankees by 2 in the MLB.
The two teams will play again tomorrow at the normal time of 4:10 PM HST/7:10 PM PST/10:10 PM EST. Clayton Kershaw (LHP/3.23 ERA/3.76 FIP) will square off against Eric Lauer (LHP/4.22 ERA/3.99 FIP).
