Angels strike after Ryu’s departure to take series opener in Anaheim
by Rowan Kavner
For the first time since May 1, the Dodgers lost a game started by Hyun-Jin Ryu. Monday night’s series opener in Anaheim unraveled only after the masterful lefty departed.
A significant contingent of Dodger fans made themselves heard as part of an announced paid attendance of 45,477, the largest crowd at Angel Stadium since renovations in 1998. But their cheers for a three-run Dodger second inning and another terrific Ryu performance turned to anxious pleading and imploring as the night carried on in a 5–3 defeat.
The Dodger bullpen couldn’t maneuver their way around traffic the way Ryu expertly managed to through six innings of one-run ball. A 3–1 Dodger lead vanished on one swing of the bat from Mike Trout against Dylan Floro. And a tie game slipped away when Joe Kelly couldn’t find the strike zone in the eighth.
“I still felt confident that Joe right there could go and execute pitches,” said manager Dave Roberts. “It just didn’t work out. We’re going to need him. That’s just plain and simple. We’ve got to figure out away to — mechanical, emotional, mental — just kind of tap into something and get him on track.”
Mechanics and the mental game haven’t similarly plagued Ryu this year. Spotted an early 3–0 lead, he buckled down after allowing his first home run since April 26 — eight starts prior to Monday night — in the bottom of the second.
He put a runner in scoring position in four of his last five innings, but stranded that runner each time. He hit a batter for the first time this year, but left him stuck on base. He struck out Trout not once but twice, the latter to end a fifth inning with two runners on base.
“I thought he was really good,” Roberts said. “He kept those guys at bay in a couple stressful spots and made pitches when he needed to.”
Ryu’s been so consistently extraordinary this year that, in allowing one run in six innings, his ERA actually jumped from 1.35 to 1.36. But the Dodger bullpen didn’t share the same success against an Angel lineup that consistently found ways on base.
After Ryu’s departure, Ross Stripling struck out two of the three batters he faced to start the seventh, allowing one runner to reach on a single. In stepped Trout, lifetime 5-for-5 against Stripling. Roberts went to Floro, who hadn’t allowed a hit to Trout before.
Floro quickly got ahead 1–2, but on the sixth pitch — and fourth slider — of the at-bat, Trout took an outside pitch to dead center for a game-tying home run as Floro became the victim of Trout’s revenge.
“Went to the well one too many times with the slider,” Roberts said. “You get a great hitter and you repeat pitches, repeat location and you don’t get it there, not a whole lot of good’s going to come about.”
An inning later, the night avalanched for the Dodger bullpen and Joe Kelly, who struck out three batters and didn’t allow a hit but also walked three batters (one intentionally), recorded a throwing error on a pickoff attempt and threw two wild pitches to put the Angels ahead for good.
Kelly, who had thrown scoreless appearances in three straight outings entering the night, blamed execution. Roberts was asked if he believes the struggles have become mental.
“You can see it,” Roberts said. “For a guy that, in my opinion, has pretty good command, to have the misfires like that, that’s very uncharacteristic. You’re trying too hard, trying to be to perfect, overthrowing whatever it might be, but very uncharacteristic a lot of those misfires.”
Still, throughout the night — and even late — chants of “Let’s go, Dodgers,” roared throughout the stadium. But neither the early cheers of jubilation — when Corey Seager roped his seventh double of June, and Chris Taylor and Kiké Hernández added run-scoring doubles soon after — nor the late cheers of hope and desire could help the Dodgers finish off Ryu’s ninth straight quality start with a win.
