The Dodgers looked to be traveling down a familiar road of late in Petco Park: low offensive production wasting a solid starting pitching effort, this time from Hyun-Jin Ryu, whose return from the DL was much needed: 7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB and 7 Ks. The Dodgers had scored one in the first on a Scott Van Slyke single to right, but gave the run right back in the bottom of the first inning. Then the Dodgers scored another run in the fifth off a Matt Kemp RBI single, but proceeded to squander a rally when SVS GIDPd to end the inning.
But this time, we broke through in the eighth inning. Adrian Gonzalez led off with a single and Kemp doubled him over to third. Carl Crawford walked, and then Juan Uribe (who also recently returned from the DL) moved everyone up 90 feet with a single to right (3-1 LA). Jesse Hahn came in to pitch and threw wild during an A.J. Ellis AB, allowing Kemp to score (Ellis would end up walking the bases loaded again). Darwin Barney then singled to right, scoring two to make it 6-1 Dodgers. All of this came with none out, so even though the inning ended poorly (Andre Ethier single but Ellis tagged at the plate, followed by Yasiel Puig and Hanley Ramirez Ks), at least we opened up a big lead this time; after going 1-for-900000 in the first two games, the Dodgers went 6-for-14 with RISP in this one.
Uribe added an RBI double in the ninth to make it 7-1, and Pedro Baez pithed two innings to have the lead hold up. Avoiding the sweep allowed us to keep 2.5 games ahead in the division (and make it a winning "road trip" of five games), before our series at home against Washington.
Welcome back, Ryu, and welcome back, Uribe!
seamless graphics work by SoSG Sax