Dodgers Complete Sweep of Padres, Keep NL West Race Tight
The Dodgers and Padres were back at it again on Sunday afternoon, for the final game of Player’s Weekend. Hyun-jin “Monster” Ryu took the bump for LA in his third start since coming off of the disabled list. Los Angeles pulled off one of their most needed sweeps all year long.
Monster.
Bull.
RedTurn2.
El Ministro.When the squad puts in work. #PlayersWeekend pic.twitter.com/oDDgq8Hinv
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 26, 2018
The Dodgers’ day didn’t start out as great as fans had hoped. The Padres jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, and their bats were awfully quiet. Hyun-jin Ryu provided two hits of his own before the offense could even muster up any runs.
Then the offense kicked it into a high gear. Justin Turner drove in two with a double down the line in left in what would eventually be a five rbi game for Rojo. The Dodgers kept it going that inning, adding two more and taking the lead for good on a Manny Machado home run. That was Machado’s fourth homerun of the month.
From there, the offense slowly added on mostly due to Justin Turner’s big day. He finished the day going 3 for 5 with two doubles.
The Defense
Ryu pitched a pretty good game despite giving up the early lead. He ended up tossing 5.2 innings of work and allowing just the two earned runs. He also struck out eight Padres in the process. Ryu has a combined 2.70 ERA across his three starts since his return.
Pedro Baez relieved Ryu when he got into a jam in the sixth. He came in, tossed one pitch, and induced a groundout. Dylan Floro followed with two solid innings of work. He struck out four Padres and did not allow a run. Yimi Garcia finished out the game despite allowing a LONG solo homerun in the ninth.
Looking Ahead
The Rockies took a huge loss today, but the Diamondbacks salvaged a win. So the West is still incredibly tight with just over a month left in the regular season. As of this article, the Dodgers are 2.5 games out. The boys in blue are off Monday as they head to Texas for a two-game series starting Tuesday. The Rockies will play the Angels and the Dbacks are in San Francisco tomorrow.