LOS ANGELES—As one player comes back from the disabled list, another one gets put on. Adrian Gonzalez returned to the lineup after being out due to herniated disks in his back. Unfortunately, Justin Turner, who is batting a team high .379, took his place on the DL after injuring his hamstring while rounding third base in the seventh inning.
“Talking to the training staff briefly, the strength was there still, which is positive,” Roberts said. “We’ll do some testing, some scans (Friday) morning. To my eyes, it didn’t look good coming around third base, but for the strength to still be there right now, to be a little more optimistic.”
Hyun Jin-Ryu (2-5, 4.75 ERA) was hit by the ball two different times Thursday night, once while batting and again while pitching, but he still managed to get the win. Those haven’t come easy for Ryu this year, as he may soon be the odd man out of the Dodgers rotation. His play on was good enough to earn him praise from his manager though.
“Ryu’s velocity was better than we’ve seen,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Even the pitch to Yelich. To his credit, he got on top of it. To sit at 90 mph, touch 92, that was a good thing.”
Cody Bellinger offered run support for Ryu early on when he scored Chase Utley with a fielders choice. Then after Ryu gave up a second inning home run to Justin Bour, the Dodgers responded immediately with some runs of their own. Yasiel Puig hit a towering 442 foot two run homer, and Ryu helped his own cause following with a double. After Chase Utley scored him with a single to center the Dodgers led 4-1 heading into the third inning.
Ryu surrendered another home run in the third inning, this one to Christian Yelich, but otherwise held the Marlins in check. He stayed in the game until the sixth inning when a ground ball hit by Bour bounced off Ryu’s leg. Following a discussion at the mound with the team trainer and manager, Ryu’s night begrudgingly came to an end.
“I think I could’ve stayed in,” Ryu said through an interpreter. “As a result, Hatch (Chris Hatcher) came in and didn’t give up a run, so it was the right decision. If you ask me if I could’ve pitched, I definitely could’ve pitched.”
After Ryu left the game the Dodger relievers did a great job preserving the win. Especially, Kenley Jansen who came on with one out remaining in the eighth inning. He pitched a perfect ninth inning, striking out three batters on only nine pitches. The loss marks the fourth in a row for the Marlins, and their ninth in ten games.
The Marlins will look to end their losing streak on May 19 in a battle of left handers as they send Justin Nicolino to the mound to square off with the only Dodger pitcher who has yet to lose a game, Alex Wood (4-0, 2.27 ERA). Wood is coming off NL player of the week honors after pitching 11 scoreless innings while serving up 21 strikeouts.
Written By John Broadway
