The Dodgers (3-6) not only returned home tonight following a shortened five game road trip, but they also returned to form as they began their two-game interleague series against the Oakland A’s (4-7). Hyun-Jin Ryu took the mound looking for his first win of the season facing A’s “southpaw specialist” Sean Manaea who, through two games, has posted a 1.15 ERA and 0.511 WHIP through 15.2 innings of work to start the season.
Chris “CT3” Taylor lead off the game with a bang as he crushed a home run to left field on a 2-1 pitch to earn his first trip around the bases this year. The next batter, Corey Seager, would come to the plate and follow suit with his first homer of the year giving the Dodgers a 2-0 lead before recording an out.
With two outs in the bottom half of the inning, Austin Barnes reached on a single that would bring Ryu to the plate. After drawing a 7-pitch walk in his first at bat, Ryu slapped a base hit into left field for his first hit of the season.
Ryu would finish pitching the top half of the frame to complete his spectacular night tossing 6.0 shut out innings allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out eight. In the bottom of the 6th Matt Kemp, who hit a double off the wall in the first inning, would lead off with a solo home run of his own – his first of the season and his first regular season homer since returning to the Dodgers to make it 3-0.
Cody Bellinger would rip a base hit to right field following the Kemp home run. He would score from first base after the next batter, Logan Forsythe, hit a double down the left field line. With Forstyhe’s hit, all nine starters would record a base hit including starting pitcher, Hyun-Jin Ryu, for a total of 11 hits on the evening.
The Dodgers would hold their 4-0 lead into the 9th inning that began with Ross Stripling on the mound. Stripling, who had pitched a scoreless 8th, would immediately get Jed Lowrie to fly out in foul territory to start the inning but would surrender back-to-back hits to Khris Davis and Matt Olson that would end his night and bring in closer Kenley “California Love” Jansen. Jansen would strike out Jonathan Lucroy for the second out and get Stephen Piscotty to ground out to end the game and earn him his second save of the year. The Dodgers (4-6) will look for the two-game sweep tomorrow night behind the arm of Alex Wood starting at 7:10 pm PST.
BakoBoyInBlue
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