The bars in K-Town were probably jumping tonight, with Korean baseball fans celebrating the return of Hyun-Jin Ryu to Chavez Ravine.
There has been some worry across the blogs and Twitter over Ryu’s decreased pitch speed. Before his shoulder injuries, Ryu was averaging 93 mph on his fastball. He seemed to be having trouble hitting 90 in his rehab starts, but he remarked the adrenaline from returning to Dodger Stadium would probably make up the difference. Hmmm…..
BTW – Matt Kemp and the surging, winning Padres were in town.
Here’s what happened.
1st inning
Padres
A collective groan spread across Los Angeles as Ryu immediately gave up a home run to Padres leadoff batter, Melvin Upton. 1-0
2nd inning Padres 1-0
Padres
A walk and two singles made it 2-0.
3rd inning Padres 2-0
Padres
A single, and then an RBI double. 3-0
5th inning Padres 3-0
Padres
Back to back doubles made it 4-0.
Then, with two on and two out, Yasiel Puig did not see a catchable fly ball sail over his head and bounce behind him. It ended up as a bases-clearing triple. 6-0
Ryu out. Casey Fien in. Job done.
6th inning Padres 6-0
Dodgers
Maybe they should have all the Dodgers’ eyes checked, because nobody is seeing the ball tonight, on the field or at the plate. Only two hits up to this point.
7th inning. Padres 6-0
11 Dodgers retired in a row.
8th inning Padres 6-0
Dodgers
At this point, the only interesting thing to look for in the game, was Corey Seager‘s hitting streak (19). Corey was hung out to dry on a low strike three call that was in the zone, according to replays.
9th inning Padres 6-0
Dodgers
The Dodgers hadn’t had a hit since Trayce Thompson doubled in the fourth. And that’s how it ended.
Dodgers lose 6-0. It wasn’t pretty or fun.
Ryu was not effective at all. He gave up a run an inning, and the anemic Dodgers’ bats did not help. Vin Scully excused the boys by declaring them “tired” after yesterday’s marathon. Perhaps, but they are world-class athletes in mid-season form, in the middle of a home-cooking homestand. One would expect they should have been able to “recover” after a night’s sleep. That said, any team can have an off-night offensively, so hopefully, that’s all it will turn out to be.
What I’m curious about, is this matter of Yasiel Puig not being able to see so many fly balls at the stadium. Vin Scully suggested, not sarcastically, the Dodgers should have Puig’s eyes checked. I agree.
Two bad losses in a row, and Corey Seager’s hitting streak is over. We can all use a good night’s sleep.
Hyun-Jin Ryu went 4 2/3 innings with 8 hits, 6 runs, 2 walks, 4 K’s, 1 HR. ERA 11.57 Yikes!
Double: Thompson
Team with RISP: 1 for 4
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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I’m not the least bit surprised by Ryu’s performance and my bet is neither are any of you.
What I am surprised by is our continued anemic offense. Waiting for a late surge? Or just a collection of old, slow .250 hitters. Looking at the box, if you didnt know you’re looking at the Dodgers, you might think it was the Padres. .245 leadoff hitter, .255 #3 hitter, .252, .227, .185, .196, .222. Who are these guys? Not exactly a championship lineup.
2 for 29. 0 for 4 WRISP. Against what was a last place club. Whatever it is that Turner Ward is peddling, the team isn’t buying.
I think you will see Arizona selling this month. Will we? I doubt it.
Any chance the Padres would take all our Cubans for Pomeranz and Myers? Didn’t think so. Oscar did not mention that Carlos Frias did a good job in mop-up duty last night. We need a long man with all these 5-inning guys, but we also need more than 3 position players on the bench. Going to be a bumpy ride.
We need starting pitchers strong enough to go 7. We don’t have them, thus the need for the extra arms in the pen. Some saw this coming. I’m not the least bit surprised. I’m not even surprised Kershaw cracked under the stress of carrying this staff. What I am surprised about are the numbers this overworked pen are putting up and the numbers this underperforming offense is NOT putting up.
This was predictable and in fact predicted. My take – Back off the expectations for this year and do not trade future assets for a chance to squeak in as a Wild Card. Stay the course. If it happens organically then it was meant to be. And…… sorry Vin. You deserve better.
I actually thought Ryu pitched better then I thought he would.
Cory’s bad throw extending the inning, didn’t help.
And Puig misplaying a line fly, and then throwing the ball over everybody’s head, didn’t help either.
Orel said that Ryu pitched fine the first four innings.
But he said in the fifth inning, that Ryu’s velocity went down to 85.
And Orel felt that Ryu’s velocity went down in the fifth ininng, because he was getting tired.
Ryu also said he would gain some velocity the more a pitches too.
He said that he always gained velocity the more he pitches throughout the season.
All of that is true.
It seems like we continue to show signs of desperation with our starting rotation. If Ryu is only ready to pitch effectively for 4, why is he here? Because we have nobody else, that’s why. That’s why we brought up Urias early, that’s why Norris, that’s why Tepesch, that’s why Stewart, Bolsinger, Stripling and whoever is next in the breech. This team is going to need to hit and play near perfect defense to compete. Can they? I guess it’s possible. We are 6-4 in our last 10.
Badger
I think that is a realistic innings number.
I had read Rick wanted pitchers that pitched eight and nine innings.
And I thought he wasn’t being realistic, because in this day, most pitchers, don’t pitch much more then seven innings.
We were just lucky when we had Kershaw and Greinke, because they would mostly pitch at least eight innings, almost every time they pitched.
And I expect both Kershaw and Greinke, to pitch deep into there careers.
Because Greinke has already made that transition, and I expect Kershaw to do the same, because he always, wants to be better.
I don’t understand why everybody is upset about the short bench.
Because the way the bullpen, is being worked, I think we need more pitchers, then bench players, at this time.
If that changes, then have a bigger bench.
And Badger I agree with your parting words.
We shouldn’t be sellers but should be cautious buyers. We are in the hunt for the wild card so it doesn’t make sense to sell. The problems are too numerous to think that they can all be fixed at the deadline. That being said, it does make sense to make a move or two as long as we don’t move any major pieces.
If the team is going to make a move, I would prioritize a #2 starter – one who can go 7 innings regularly, and there probably aren’t too many of those. Stay away from the Rich Hill’s of the world – he is 36 and even though he has pitched well this year, he has thrown 76 innings in 13 starts, or 5.8 innings per start. We don’t need more scrap heap reclamation projects. If the Dodgers can’t get pitcher that they need, they are better off holding on to what they have and seeing which of the kids is ready for prime time if needed.
While the most obvious weakness of the team offensively is at catcher, changing catchers midseason is very hard on the pitchers. I would stay the course with Grandal and Ellis and maybe try Barnes at some point.
I would instead focus on right handed hitting OF. Pederson may end up needing surgery given what he has done to his AC joint. Puig has flamed out again; Thompson may have turned into a pumpkin. Ethier may or may not return; Seager and Gonzalez are lefties as is Ethier (and Pederson too if he returns).
I would prioritize a #2 starter and a right handed hitting OF over a catcher or a set-up man at this point. But I would avoid making major changes. I don’t view the Dodgers as a World Series contender this year, and when the dust clears at the end of the season and as next season starts, we should reassess what the Dodgers have on the major league roster and who is coming from the farm and figure out the team’s needs then.
I agree about Hill!
He sounds like another Kazmir.
Hill also was pitching in an independent league, like Kazmir.
Undo the Kemp trade and San Diego takes on the 3.5 mil a year. Get Greinke back, redo the contract by front loading it, trade Grandal to the Cubs and don’t listen to me cuz I’m just ramblin and haven’t given this any thought.
It’s hard to watch these pitchers go through spring training now, behind by 6+ games to the hated ones. By that measure, it will be a month before Ryu is up to speed, and who knows what that means now? I thought we would be behind by 10 by July 1; we might be close to that by the break. THE giants HAVE TO LOSE. DAMMIT. D’backs play them this weekend without Grienke. Good luck to them. I hope Goldschmidt goes off. 66 has been silent these last 2 games. So has the offense. Coincidence? It’s too late to expect that he will be anything other than a mid level player in the near future. Maybe at age 30 he will be peaking; but we won’t have him them. I hope.