Sunday, May 12, 2013

Dodgers wake up, flash some leather, and finally win

It feels good to win.

Yes, the Marlins are terrible, and this win might only be a slip on the radar of a lost season, but on Saturday night the Dodgers could do no wrong.  Led by a strong start from Hyun-Jin Ryu and three diving catches on defense, they got the win over the Fish, 7-1.  It's their first W since April 30, which was also a victory for Ryu.

Andre Ethier had a four-hit night, by far his best game of the season, and he doubled leading off the second.  A.J. Ellis sacrificed him over to second, and Skip Schumaker's RBI single made it 1-0.  The Dodgers never looked back from there.

The third inning brought an incredible sight - Dee Gordon hit a leadoff homer.  He took a low pitch and golfed it just over the wall in right for the improbable shot.  The inning also featured a dumb baserunning move by Matt Kemp, who overran second and was gunned down from behind.  Schumaker picked up another RBI on a fielder's choice, and it was 3-0.

Two more runs were pushed across in the fifth.  Ethier and Ellis started things with one-out singles.  Schumaker became an RBI machine with a run-scoring single, and Juan Uribe got another one in on a sac-fly, and the Dodgers were in full control at 5-0.

The only blemish of the night for Ryu came on a long home run hit by Miguel Olivo to start the seventh.  The Dodgers responded right away in the bottom of the frame on an RBI single by Uribe and a run by Schumaker from a passed ball to close out the scoring on the night.

There's a lot that went right for the Dodgers, but the defense was fantastic the whole way.  The first of three great diving plays came from Schumaker in the fifth, as he robbed Matt Diaz of an RBI with a two-out stop to end the inning.  Carl Crawford got in on the act with a full-stretched diving catch of Nick Green in the seventh, and Ethier's sliding catch denied Diaz in the eighth.

Heck, even Javy Guerra gloved a wicked liner right back at him for the game's final out.

Ryu is quietly becoming a very effective Major League starter, as he turned in another quality performance by going 6 2/3 innings for five hits, one run, three walks, and three strikeouts.  He's now 4-2 with a 3.40 ERA and 1.21 WHIP.  His strikeouts have been down, but his ground balls have been way up.  He's also pitched at least six innings in all eight starts, which is huge considering how awful the middle relief has been.

All in all, he's been worth the money spent for the Dodgers.  Yes, I know they gave away a boatload's worth to get him, but with injuries to Chad Billingsley, Zack Greinke, Chris Capuano, Ted Lilly, and even Stephen Fife, it's good to rely on Ryu to get deep into the game with a chance to win.  And he's clearly only getting better.

Offensively, the Dodgers were a shocking 5-for-11 with RISP, which is almost an unheard of stat for these guys.  Schumaker had two of those hits as part of this three RBI night.  Uribe had two hits, a walk, and a sac-fly in four productive at-bats.  Ethier had four hits despite playing on a sore leg.  Every starter reached base at least once, including Ryu with a walk.

Kemp was only 1-for-5, but somehow has a 10-game hitting streak.  It's by no means a dominating streak, but it's something to try and build on.  He has raised his average from .253 to .269 at least.  The power is still AWOL, though, and it remains a big issue.

The Dodgers will look to start the week off fresh with a series win over the Marlins on Sunday.  Yes, I know, nothing to get excited about, as the Marlins feature a bunch of no-namers.  But at this point, the Dodgers would take wins over Little League teams.  Capuano gets the call.

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