The Los Angeles Dodgers got back in the win column on Sunday afternoon, shutting out the Washington Nationals, 6-0, to earn a series split at Dodger Stadium.
Hyun-Jin Ryu continued his dominance on the mound, taking a no-hitter into the eighth inning. While Gerardo Parra broke it up with a one-out, ground-rule double, Ryu still turned in an exceptional outing.
He finished with eight shutout innings while allowing just the one hit and one walk to go along with nine strikeouts. The walk he issued was just hit third all season and first at Dodger Stadium since Aug. 26 of last season.
For Ryu, it was a third straight start that he completed at least eight innings while allowing one or fewer runs. The win moved him to 5-1 on the season with a 1.72 ERA and 0.73 WHIP.
Ryu actually should have lost his no-hit bid in the sixth inning if it wasn’t for an incredible play by Cody Bellinger.
Nationals starter Stephen Strasburg lined what looked to be a single to right field, but Bellinger charged the ball and fired an absolute strike to Max Muncy at first base to get Strasburg by an inch.
Also, some credit deserves to go Muncy’s way for that play as he recognized that Bellinger wanted to come up throwing and hustled to get back to the bag.
Bellinger had a strong day at the plate as well, going 3-for-3 with a walk, stolen base and two runs scored. He raised his season batting average back up to .407 after falling below .400 a few times throughout the course of the week.
The Dodgers’ biggest swing of the day came off the bat of Corey Seager in the bottom of the eighth inning though. With the Dodgers leading 2-0, Seager stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and no outs.
He quickly cleared them by launching a grand slam to right field to provide insurance runs. Seager had been struggling at the plate in recent weeks, so that swing had to have felt good for him.
The home run was just his third of the season and first since April 12 when he went deep against the Milwaukee Brewers.
