Dodgers Team News

Dodgers Opening Day Recap: Ryu Shines, Wilson Falters In Loss To Padres

[new_royalslider id=”16″] The Dodgers regular season in America officially began Sunday night in San Diego. After striking out Carl Crawford and Yasiel Puig in the first inning., Padres starter Andrew Cashner was off to a great start. On the other hand, Hyun-Jin Ryu did not get off to such a smooth start after allowing a walk to the Padres leadoff man Everth Cabrera. The Dodgers starter eventually found himself with bases loaded with one only out after giving up a line drive and another walk, but he forced Yonder Alonso into the 1-2-3 double play allowing no runs to end the inning.

Cashner returned in the second, allowing a base hit to Juan Uribe. A.J. Ellis responded with a flare to get runners on first and third, but Dee Gordon grounded into the fielder’s choice to close the top of the inning. Ryu gave up back-to-back singles to start, and a sac bunt from Cashner advanced runners to second and third. The left-hander was able to get himself out of another tough situation, and the score remained 0-0. The Padres starter struck out Crawford for a second time to log another scoreless inning, and Ryu began to regain steadiness finishing three quick outs to end the third.



Heading into the fourth, Adrian Gonzalez sent a ball deep to the right field warning track that was grabbed by Chris Denorfia, and Cashner was able to complete another strong inning. Ryu was solid in the bottom of the inning logging his third strikeout of the game and allowing no hits. Cashner saw a little more trouble in the fifth giving up a line drive to Ellis and a walk to Dee Gordon. Although a bunt by Ryu resulted in getting Ellis out at third, a line drive from Crawford with two outs sent Gordon home to give the Dodgers the 1-0 lead. The bases were loaded after Puig drew the walk, but Hanley Ramirez grounded out to end the inning. Ryu dealt two strikeouts to complete his fifth shutout inning.

In his sixth inning of work, Cashner logged a quick 1-2-3 inning to retire Gonzalez, Andre Ethier and Uribe. Ryu remained efficient retiring his 15th straight batter to end the inning. Nick Vincent took over Cashner in the seventh inning allowing Ellis to walk, and Alex Torres came in for Vincent with one out remaining. Ellis advanced to second off a wild pitch, but Torres struck out Crawford to finish the inning. Although Ryu got through the bottom of the seventh smoothly, his retired-batters streak ended at 16 after issuing a walk to Tommy Medica.

Dale Thayer entered the game for Torres in the eighth and completed three quick outs. The first reliever to come out of the Dodgers bullpen for the season was none other than Brian Wilson. The 32-year-old gave up a solo home run to the first batter he faced, Seth Smith, tying the game up at one a piece. Yasmani Grandal drew the walk and advanced to second after Wilson couldn’t get the out off of Cabrera’s bunt. With no outs, Grandal and Cabrera separately stole second and third, and Denorfia smacked a liner up the middle to drive Grandal and Cabrera home giving the Padres the 3-1 lead. A fielding error from Gonzalez led to Wilson’s departure from the game after retiring zero batters and allowing three runs.

Chris Perez took over for Wilson with runners on first and second and no outs. Perez struckout Jedd Gyorko, and Paco Rodriguez came in with one out on the board. After back-to-back strikeouts, Rodriguez was able to get the Dodgers out of the tiring inning.

Ethier led off the ninth with a groundout, which was then followed by an Uribe strikeout and an Ellis groundout to give the Dodgers their first loss. Wilson got the loss for the Dodgers.

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