The Los Angeles Dodgers took care of business on Thursday night, shutting out the New York Mets to earn a 2-0 victory to take three out of the four games at Dodger Stadium.
Most of the Dodgers’ wins lately have been because of their offense, but this one was mainly on the pitching staff, and Hyun-Jin Ryu in particular.
Ryu is the early National League Cy Young Award favorite and he proved why on Thursday, blanking the Mets for 7.2 innings while allowing just four hits and a walk while striking out seven.
The win improved Ryu to 8-1 on the season while lowering his ERA to 1.49 and WHIP to 0.81, which are both the best in baseball among qualified starters. He has struck out 69 batters compared to just five walks in 73 total innings.
Ryu had the Mets lineup, which some of the other Dodgers starters struggled with during the series, completely under control all night. He retired 10 straight at one point and did not let a runner advance past second base.
Ryu handed the ball off to closer Kenley Jansen with two outs in the eighth as he was tasked with getting his second save of more than three outs in this series. Jansen was able to get the job done to earn his 16th save of the year.
The Dodgers offense stayed quiet pretty much all night although they were able to put up a pair of timely runs. The first came in the bottom of the first inning when Chris Taylor led things off with a triple and then scored on a double by Max Muncy.
Then in the bottom of the eighth inning, Kiké Hernandez added a big insurance run with a clutch two-out single to score David Freese, who hit an opposite-field double.
