Hyun-Jin Ryu and the Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t put forth their cleanest effort Tuesday night but still managed to come away with a 9-0 shutout victory against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dodgers extended their winning streak to a season-best seven games in the process.
Cody Belling provided Ryu with an early lead by lifting a pitch below his knees off the wall in straightaway center field for a two-run triple in the first inning. Joc Pederson’s leadoff walk and Corey Seager reaching on an error gave the Dodgers two baserunners with one out in the third.
Rookie Taylor Clarke nearly escaped the jam but after retiring Bellinger, his pickoff throw to first base went wide, allowing Pederson to score from first base. The Dodgers then broke the game open in the seventh inning behind Kiké Hernandez’s solo home run and Seager’s RBI double.
Hernandez added insurance in the eighth with an RBI single, Seager tacked on a ground-rule RBI double in the ninth and David Freese contributed a two-run double of his own for good measure. Bellinger, Freese, Hernandez and Seager finished each finished tied for the team lead with two RBI.
Arizona twice had an opportunity to cut into their deficit in the bottom half of the inning that the Dodgers scored in. In the first, consecutive errors by Freese and Seager with two outs prevented Ryu from working a quick inning.
He was forced to throw an 11 additional pitches and 25 overall but still managed to keep the Dodgers’ 2-0 lead intact. Ryu had self-inflicted damage to lead off the bottom of the third on an errant throw after fielding a tapper in front of the mound.
However, Bellinger backed up the play and threw out Clarke at second base. The assist was Bellinger’s eighth this season, which is tied for the MLB lead. Ryu faced another jam in the seventh inning as Seager’s throwing error put runners at the corners with one out.
Like the previous cases, Ryu escaped the jam, this time inducing a double play. That was the end of the road for Ryu at seven shutout innings, with only three hits allowed. It marked a fifth time in his past six starts he turned in a scoreless outing.
Moreover, after stringing together a scoreless streak of 32 innings back in May, when he was named National League Pitcher of the Month, Ryu now has not allowed a run in his last 18.2 innings pitched.
