The Los Angeles Dodgers took a lead four pitches into the bottom of the first inning and though they largely spun their wheels the rest of the way, Hyun-Jin Ryu made it stand in a 2-0 victory and series win against the New York Mets.
Seemingly picking up where the Dodgers left off Wednesday night, Chris Taylor started the bottom of the first inning with a triple on a sinking line drive that got by J.D. Davis. Max Muncy’s RBI double gave L.A. a 1-0 advantage.
They went on to load the bases but Jason Vargas got Russell Martin to ground out. The Dodgers had eight of their first 16 batters reach safely, yet only led 1-0 heading into the fifth inning.
Vargas needed 43 pitches to get through the first two frames but settled in from there to turn in his longest outing of the season at seven innings. It also marked a fifth time in his past six starts in which Vargas allowed exactly one run.
His effort was all for naught as Hyun-Jin Ryu continued with his dominant season. The Mets stressed him some in the second inning with a walk and base hit to put two on with one out. Their next baserunner didn’t come until the fifth on Tomas Nido’s two-out single.
Pete Alonso’s leadoff double in the seventh put the tying run in scoring position but Ryu successfully wiggled his way out of the inning unscathed. With that, Ryu was holding opponents to just 2-for-42 when batting with runners in scoring position this season.
Ryu hit for himself in the bottom of the seventh and was back on the mound at 100 pitches to start the eighth inning. He got the first out on one pitch, then allowed an infield single followed by a force out.
That prompted Dodgers manager Dave Roberts to summon Kenley Jansen for a four-out save. It was a second time in the series Jansen went one-plus inning to close out a game. Jansen was used for a five-out save on Memorial Day, a game in which Roberts felt was a must-win for the Dodgers.
Jansen worked with some insurance as David Freese’s leadoff double that popped out of Michael Conforto’s glove when he crashed into the wall in right field was cashed in by Kiké Hernandez on a two-out RBI single.
