The Los Angeles Dodgers received more of the same from Cody Bellinger and Hyun-Jin Ryu, and it led to a 6-5 win over Madison Bumgarner San Francisco Giants to set up a rubber match Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
Coming off his six innings of one-run ball in an impressive Opening Day start, Ryu put together another impressive showing. He retired 15 of the first 16 batters and faced the minimum through five shutout innings.
Trouble arose in the sixth, which saw Bumgarner put the Giants on the board with a two-run home run. A pair of singles followed but Ryu managed to escape the inning without any further damage. All in all he finished with five strikeouts, two runs and six hits allowed in seven innings.
While the Dodgers bullpen has taken their lumps through the first week of the season, they took a half-step forward Monday night. Caleb Ferguson worked a scoreless eighth inning, but Yimi Garcia and Kenley Jansen couldn’t follow suit in the ninth.
Garcia allowed a leadoff double and issued a walk, marking the end of his appearance. Jansen’s fielding error loaded the bases with nobody out, and a run scored when he walked Yangervis Solarte. Gerardo Parra’s two-run single further cut into the Dodgers lead but the Giants never got any closer.
The pitching staff had a lead to work in some part because Bumgarner unraveled. His throwing error allowed Russell Martin to reach to lead off the inning, and Bumgarner compounded that by walking Ryu on four pitches.
Kiké Hernandez opened the scoring with an RBI single in the third inning. Hernandez entered the night batting .487/.500/.923 with five doubles, four home runs and eight RBI in 39 career at-bats against Bumgarner.
A.J. Pollock’s two-out single not only kept the inning alive but led to Bellinger tagging Bumgarner for his fourth career grand slam. It also gave Bellinger five home runs this season, which is tied for the Major League lead.
As a team the Dodgers have now hit a home run in all six games to start the season. It matches the all-time mark set by the 1954 Brooklyn team that also homered in the first six games.
