Hyun-Jin Ryu made his long-awaited return Thursday night in the opener of a four-game set against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium. The series is the Dodgers’ last before the All-Star Game.
Ryu’s velocity sat in the low 90s to open the game and his hardest pitch, a 92 mph fastball, was driven to right-center field by Melvin Upton Jr. for a leadoff home run. Wil Myers then struck out swinging and Ryu proceeded to retire Matt Kemp and Yangervis Solarte after that.
Drew Pomeranz bounced back from issuing a leadoff walk to Howie Kendrick in the bottom of the first by striking out Corey Seager and Justin Turner. Kendrick moved into scoring position on a wild pitch, where he was stranded as Adrian Gonzalez pulled a slow grounder up the first base line.
Derek Norris drew a leadoff walk in the second inning but was erased on a force out. An Alexei Ramirez single put runners on first and second, and Pomeranz helped himself as a chopper up the middle carried into center for an RBI base hit.
Scott Van Slyke was hit by a pitch with two outs in the bottom of the second. A.J. Ellis extended the inning by drawing a walk, though it was to no avail as Pomeranz retired Ryu to keep the Padres’ lead at 2-0.
After Ryu retired the Padres in order in the third, Kendrick led off the bottom half of the inning with an infield single to give the Dodgers their first hit in the game. Pomeranz kept Kendrick at first base by retiring Seager, Turner and Gonzalez.
Norris reached on an infield single to start the fourth and took an extra base on Seager’s throwing error. He came around to score with two outs on Ramirez’s double to the left-center field gap.
Trayce Thompson’s one-out double in the bottom of the inning didn’t amount to anything and the Dodgers trailed, 3-0 after four. Chris Taylor was on deck to bat for Ryu in the bottom of the fourth, but since he didn’t hit, Ryu remained in the game.
That decision backfired as his velocity dropped to the upper 80s and Kemp and Solarte combined for back-to-back first-pitch doubles, with the latter scoring a run. After Norris was intentionally walked, Alex Dickerson lined a two-run triple over Yasiel Puig’s head.
Puig initially started in on the ball and couldn’t recover in time as it sailed over his head. Casey Fien took over and retired Ramirez for the third out. Fien was then pinch-hit for in the bottom of the fifth as the Dodgers went down in order.
Pomeranz got through seven scoreless innings, with the Dodgers’ last baserunner coming in the fourth on Thompson’s double. Carlos Frias’ ran into trouble in the eighth, which was his third inning of work.
Norris’ leadoff single was followed by a Dickerson double, and Frias walked Ryan Schimpf to load the bases with one out. He worked his way out of the jam by striking out pinch-hitter Brett Wallace, and Upton Jr.
Ryan Buchter worked around a one-out walk in the eighth to keep the Padres’ 6-0 lead intact. Included in that was catching Seager looking, effectively ending his 19-game hitting streak.
Frias completed a fourth scoreless inning of relief, but the Dodgers didn’t mount any sort of comeback in the bottom of the ninth and lost a third consecutive game.
