It’s been 953 days since Hyun-Jin Ryu last had a win in the major leagues. Today he took the mound for the Dodgers once again. Here’s how it all turned out.
The Dodgers had a promising start in the first inning. With two out and one on, Yasiel Puig smartly worked a base on balls. Scott Van Slyke also walked to load the bases for Yasmani Grandal.
That’s where the promise was smashed, as Grandal swung at the first pitch he saw and hit a weak bouncer up the middle to end the threat.
Speaking of threats, Hyun-Jin Ryu was immediately threatened when the Rockies came out swinging – and hitting – every thing he threw at them. The Dodgers were lucky to get away with only giving up one run in the inning. That was thanks to Grandal throwing out a base stealer right before a single that would have scored that runner.
The next inning brought a second helping of good and bad. The Dodgers committed two errors which put two more Rockies in scoring position, but they caught a break with a smart double play by SVS, who played first base today. The score remained 1-0 Rockies.
The Dodgers tied it at one in the fourth after a Van Slyke double and smallballing him across the plate.
Ryu found a groove and struck out two more in the third.
After four innings, Ryu had 5 Ks and only one run surrendered. He’d thrown 56 pitches, and 40 for strikes, with his fastball consistently in the 90’s.
However, the first Rockie he saw in the fifth launched one out to give the 2-1 lead back to Colorado.
Ryu was later pulled with two on, two out, and Nolan Arenado coming up. Ross Stripling took over. Strike out! Job done.
It was Rockies up 2-1 after 5. The game remained that way until the end as the Dodgers lazily went through the motions and never really mounted a rally or even a mild rise.
The Twitter heads were ready to tar and feather Ryu after just one inning today, but he hung tough and eventually found his groove. All things considered, Ryu had a very good outing that was spoiled by a home run that barely missed the wrong side of the foul pole, and a Dodgers offense that did nothing but sputter under him. Then they went completely dead for the bullpen.
The March of Duds:
Forsythe – 0 for 4 with a Golden Sombrero
Gutierrez – 0 for 3 with 2 Ks
Grandal – 0 for 3 and he left bases loaded.
Hernandez – 0 for 2, but the game’s only RBI
Looking for a bright spot: The bullpen once again excelled. Ross Stripling, Grant Dayton and (just called up) Josh Fields combined for another Dodgers bullpen scoreless outing.
Hyun-Jin Ryu went 4 2/3 innings allowing 2 runs on 6 hits, with 5 Ks and 1 walk.
Home runs: Only the bad guys.
Oscar Martinez
I was born in the shadow of Dodger Stadium and immediately drenched in Dodger Blue. Chavez Ravine is my baseball cathedral, Vin Scully was the golden voice of summer all my life, and Tommy Lasorda remains the greatest Dodgers manager ever. My favorite things are coffee, beer, and the Dodgers beating the Giants. I also blog about my baseball card hobby at All Trade Bait, All the Time.
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Ryu’s comeback is amazing.
How long does Gutierrez get as a LHP solution?
After 4 games
Dodgers’ batting average vs lefty pitchers is .190 (.298 vs RHP)
Dodgers’ OPS vs lefty pitchers is .570 (1.029 vs RHP)
=
This includes all pitchers and not just starters but doesn’t include today’s debacle against Rockies’ rookie southpaw
This was a good, close baseball game. Ryu was good and hopefully on the road to being better.
I won’t sweat this loss.
However!!!!
Will they still play Kike at SS? Anyone here Rick Monday’s comments on Kike’s inability to get in front of the ball and smoother it. If you didn’t know Kike, you would have thought Monday was talking about a little league player. That’s how awful Kike looked in that 2 error inning….awful to Rick Monday, which is good enough for me.
As I thought and said before the game, Puig, VanShite, Grandal would kill us being put back to back to back, one fn hit among those 4, 5, 6 batters ain’t going to work. Roberts just placed too many outs in that line up. The fielding was truly little league, first batter for rockies strikes out and Grandal cannot block a ball and allows him a free pass to first base. Sorry but Grandal has to go, he is just a rally-killin, poor defensive catcher that really lets this team down nearly every single game.
sorry to be so negative but holy shite this team has a bunch of holes in it’s lineup, across the board.
LOL
Bluto
I thought Ryu really pitched well.
And he had to throw more pitches, because of the errors, even though they made some good plays, to help Ryu out, after the errors.
And about Gutierrez, I looked at his stats during the game, and in seven at bats, he had only one hit, but he also had, four strike outs too.
Puig had a couple of good AB’s and one bad one. SVS had a double and scored the only run, but Grandal remained true to form with his mantle of rally killer. Bases loaded in the 1st, you need to drive someone in.
A few observations on what I watched on TV today. Point 1. These bums cannot hit lefty’s. Point 2. These bums definitely cannot hit lefty’s. Point 3. No way these bums can hit lefty’s. Point 4. Kike Hernandez is no SS. Point 5. Is anyone really surprised that Hill is on the DL already. Point 6. Ryu showed his professionalism holding the Rock’s to 1 run in that first inning. He was almost undone by his and Kike’s errors, but got out of that jam. The homer was a good pitch that the guy just crushed. All in all Ryu looked good. And my last point. Turner looked like he is going to turn around the way lefty’s handled him last year. A positive note in a sea of negativity.
Michael
I agree it looks like Turner, might be turning the corner with lefties.
And I really thought Ryu kept his composure well in the entire game, and pitched, well too.
And if this leftie thing continues, these next few games, are not going to be fun, to watch.
And if we don’t prove we can hit lefties, that is all, we will be seeing.
The good news, there are quite a bit fewer lefties than righties.
The bad news, the team, as MIchael noted, can’t hit lefties!
I would think one of the most sensible moves would be to hire a left handed batting practice pitcher. But baseball doesn’t work in sensible ways…
Funny you should say that Jonah. Back in the day, 1950’s, teams would take batting practice against the kind of pitcher they were facing that day. Lefty’s and RH, and I forget what team it was, but they had a coach who threw knuckleballs. So they could get ready for guys like Wilhelm. LaSorda, when he was the manager in the first 5 or 6 years he was there, would throw batting practice sometimes.
Jonah–that’s a really good idea. Have a righty and a lefty out there, switching off every 3 pitches.
But what if the players can’t hit the batting practice pitcher?
Those Dodger front office thinkers who live and die by the numbers believe that the lineup they insist Roberts put out there against left handed pitchers will, over the course of a full season, hit. They don’t have gut feelings that they listen to, they have pages of algorithms that dictate policy. Gutierrez- .842, Forsythe – .817, Hernandez – .829, SVS – .843. Career OPS v LHP. That’s all you need to know. I doubt Zaidi ever goes to baseball games. In his spare time he goes to behavioral economics lectures.
This is who we are. It might eventually work, but until these guys get their schwerve on, I wouldn’t advise attending any games that we face a left hander – unless Kershaw is on the mound. I’d buy a ticket to see him pitch.
Jonah
I either heard, or read, that they have two people throwing batting practice, one a rightie, and one that is a leftie.
I just hope this isn’t an organization problem.
Lefties should be able to hit lefties, because most right hand hitters, do hit both.
If they can’t hit a batting practice leftie, we are in trouble,because they are not even close, to a major league hitter.
I really believe Roberts makes the final lineup. He is given all the stats and then he decides. I do not like platooning, but Roberts does. I will have to get used to it.
I did not like Gutierrez in Seattle and still do not like him. I would rather have Thompson. Kike, not good. Rather have Taylor.
Pitching has looked good. We could be 5-0 based on our pitching. The hitting will come.
Idahoal
The next seven games should tell us a lot about the team.
This all stems from when they let go Hanley and Kemp, and assumed that Puig would be that right hand bat, that Hanley and Kemp was, and that is part of the problem.
And I think Mattingly convinced the front office of this, when they first came to the team, because at that time, Mattingly had more of a problem with Kemp, then with Puig.
We really just need a really good right hand hitter.
A hitter that not only has power, but they also need to hit for a good average, 290, 300.
Gutierrez like you said, doesn’t hit for a high average, he hits about 250, and because he hits with power, he strikes out a lot.
We have to many hitters, like that, but even those hitters that we have, don’t hit lefties well.
Agone and Corey, both hit 250 against lefties last year, which is average, but that is still better, then most of the team.
And when they both are out, we feel it.
Corey did have the second highest exit velocity against leftie pitchers last year, which is always good, for a hitter that makes consistent contact.
It’s my belief that FAZ looked for a sabermetrics believer in the hiring process. Roberts would not have been hired if his response to the platoon question wasn’t answered properly. Yeah, he makes out the lineup card, but when we trade a top pitching prospect for another second baseman, when guys like Gutierrez are signed, and Hernandez is retained, that handwriting is visible for all to see. This is an organizational framework. We are a weighted on base average, secondary average, runs created, equivalent average and DIPS driven organization. I don’t think about all that when I watch a game though. It doesn’t work for me. I watch what I’ve always watched – baseball being played by the best baseball players in the world.
Anyone who applied for the job would have known that going in. And consequently have acted like he loved sabermetrics in order to get the job. A man with integrity would have said,”I don’t operate that way”. As I said from the first week of last season, Roberts is a gutless suckup who would do anything to get/keep that job. Unfortunately, so are most other managers. Baseball gets less appealing all the time.
Yeah, I get that Jonah. I feel very much the same about the product now. It’s different since Lasorda left. Actually, it might have started before that. Like many things, I’ve developed a bah humbug attitude about it. That said, I anted up to watch about 500 hours worth again this summer. Maybe I’ll be a platoon viewer – only watch the games we face a right hander.
Jonah and Badger,
I hate to say this, but this is how much of baseball, does baseball now.
There are not many teams left, and probably not even one team, that doesn’t have a big emphasis, on saber metrics.
So anyone who wants to badly manage a big league team, will have to be open to sabermetrics, and the numbers, that the front office, gives them.
So I don’t think Roberts, is as weak as my friend Jonah thinks, it is just that Roberts, is younger, and he loves baseball, so he finds a way, to work with the guys, in the front office.
I don’t think the front office makes the line up, but they do give the numbers, to Roberts.
And because of all of this, Roberts, does keep the front office in mind, when he makes out his line up, and other things.
Badger
I have been watching how my dog wags his tail, more lately, and he doesn’t have much of a tail, if you know what I mean.
And how it works is amazing, but how long can it really last?
lolz. Platoon viewer
Jonah
In the times of today, it seems like not many, appreciate a person, with integrity, but I won’t rise, with that tide.
He does, so did Mattingly, but the FO gives them all these stats to base their picks on. Gutierrez was signed simply because his splits against lefty’s are high. A-Gone in years past would be in there no matter who was pitching. But his bat has slowed down, and he no longer does that. Hernandez had 1 good season against LH pitching and automatically he is a good hitter against those guys, not so much last year and nada this year. He does not even belong on the big league roster.