Dodgers Rally To Beat Cardinals, Cubs Have Their Groove Back

By ESPN

Hyun-Jin Ryu made his first major league relief appearance for the Los Angeles Dodgers, tossing four scoreless innings to earn his first career save.

Taking the career starter out of his comfort zone required careful deliberation among the front office, doctors and Ryu, who admittedly wasn't thrilled at the idea.

He worked in relief of starter Kenta Maeda, who rallied the Dodgers to a 7-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Thursday night.

"Those two guys back-to-back in a tandem situation is pretty lethal," Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

Ryu allowed two hits and struck out two. He became the second Dodger to record a save in his first career relief appearance, joining Charlie Hough, who did it on Aug. 12, 1970, at Pittsburgh. It was Ryu's first relief outing as a pro since 2011 in the Korean Baseball Organization.

"My initial reaction was I didn't understand where the front office was coming from," Ryu said through a translator. "I'm a starter at heart. I believe I'll get another start. It was just a one-time appearance so you can't really say I'm good at this role."

Roberts showed up an hour late to his pregame media availability, explaining he had been on conference calls with doctors to discuss players such as Rob Segedin. Eventually, Roberts admitted management was trying to figure out Ryu's role.

"It's been in the works for a few days and just trying to find the right time to plug him in," Roberts said after the game.

Ryu, who had left shoulder and elbow surgeries over the last two seasons, was removed from the rotation after a 7-2 win over Miami on May 18. He is 2-5 with a 4.75 ERA this season.

"It definitely wasn't the same," Ryu said, referring to his pregame routine. "The most difficult part was warming up before the game. I didn't know exactly when I would be put into the game, so there was some difficulty there."

Roberts credited Ryu's "unselfishness to do something that he's never done before."

However, Roberts added, "This is not something that we plan on being permanent. It's just to make sure we build his pitch count up, get him some consistent innings."

Asked before the game whether Ryu would be traded, Roberts replied, "I'm not going to answer that."

Maeda fell into a 3-0 hole in the first inning of his first start for the Dodgers in two weeks after coming off the disabled list.

"It was a little hard getting into the game with the long layoff," he said through a translator. "It took some time to get my rhythm back."

Maeda (4-2) drove in the tying and go-ahead runs with a two-out single in the fourth off Michael Wacha and turned an inning-ending double play in the fifth to help the Dodgers take two of three from the Cardinals.

Maeda allowed three runs and seven hits in five innings, struck out four and walked two.

He missed 13 games with a tight left hamstring while on the DL since May 11. Maeda got off to a rocky start in his return, giving up Jedd Gyorko's two-run double and Yadier Molina's RBI single in the first that extended his major league-leading hitting streak to 14 games.

The Dodgers took over from there.

Chase Utley homered for the first time this season leading off the second. Yasiel Puig's two-out single in the fourth made it 3-2 before Maeda's two-run single gave the Dodgers a 4-3 lead. He was out stretching at second.

Maeda hit Matt Carpenter in the left foot leading off the fifth. With one out, Maeda started an inning-ending double play when Molina grounded to the mound.

Wacha (2-2) gave up a season-worst six runs and seven hits in a season-low four-plus innings. The right-hander struck out five and walked two. The six runs were the most he's allowed since May 19, 2016, against Colorado.

"They did a good job battling," Wacha said. "Whenever I'd get ahead they would battle to get it full count, 2-2. Put up good at-bats and in some of those cases I wasn't able to finish them off."

Brett Cecil replaced Wacha with two on in the fifth and struggled with his control. His two wild pitches led to a run being scored before Adrian Gonzalez's RBI double made it 6-3.

Cubs 5, Giants 1

It looks like the Chicago Cubs have got their groove back.

Kris Bryant, Jason Heyward and Ben Zobrist hit solo homers, and the Cubs beat the San Francisco Giants 5-1 on Thursday for their third straight win.

Zobrist added two singles as Chicago took three of four games from the Giants and finished a 7-2 homestand. The defending World Series champions went deep 20 times during the nine games and have 26 homers in their last 14.

"We're starting to hit them," manager Joe Maddon said. "We have that kind of power on our team. We're looking like we're getting in our groove a little bit."

Heyward went deep for the second time in three games and has a five-game hitting streak since a sprained finger on his right hand caused him to miss 12 games.

"As a group, we did a great job of getting back to keeping it simple and not trying to do too much," Heyward said. "Just try to take it easy and relax and have a good approach (at the plate). Be aggressive in the strike zone and kind of make them come to us."

Bryant takes a less technical view of the power surge.

"It feels good to have guys swinging well and obviously the home run balls are nice," he said.

Spot starter Eddie Butler (2-0) allowed one run and four hits in five innings, rebounding from a sloppy outing last week against Milwaukee, when he walked five over three innings. Mike Montgomery pitched one-hit ball over four innings for his first professional save.

"It was fabulous," Maddon said of Montgomery's outing. "To go five and four (innings) like that, we couldn't have asked for more."

Jeff Samardzija (1-6) gave up three runs and six hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts. He also gave up three home runs against Arizona in his first start of the season on April 6.

"When you're facing a lineup like that, you've got to be on the whole time," Samardzija said. "There's good and there's bad, but it could've been a little better."

And Samardzija got scant support as San Francisco lost its third straight and finished 3-4 on its trip.

"We got shut down offensively," manager Bruce Bochy said. "(Samardzija) did a nice job -- three runs in seven innings -- you'd like to think we can score in this ballpark, get three, four runs. We couldn't do it."

Brandon Belt hit an RBI double in the first, but Bryant tied the score in the bottom half with his 11th homer, a drive to left into a 15 mph wind that was caught by a fan with a glove.

Heyward's leadoff homer in the fifth put the Cubs ahead, and Zobrist connected starting the sixth, a drive halfway up the right-field bleachers.

Josh Osich threw a run-scoring wild pitch in the eighth, and a throwing error by catcher Buster Posey allowed another run to score.

Thursday, May 25 Scoreboard

Seattle 4, Washington 2

Pittsburgh 9, Atlanta 4

Philadelphia 2, Colorado 1 (F/11)

Tampa Bay 4, Los Angeles Angels 0

Chicago Cubs 5, San Francisco 1

Boston 6, Texas 2

San Diego 4, New York Mets 3

Arizona 4, Milwaukee 0

Houston 7, Detroit 6

Los Angeles Dodgers 7, St. Louis 3

Kansas City at New York Yankees, postponed

Cincinnati at Cleveland, postponed

Friday, May 26 Schedule (All Times Central)

Detroit at Chicago White Sox, 4:10 p.m.

Oakland at New York Yankees, 6:05 p.m.

San Diego at Washington, 6:05 p.m.

Cincinnati at Philadelphia, 6:05 p.m.

New York Mets at Pittsburgh, 6:05 p.m.

Texas at Toronto, 6:07 p.m.

Seattle at Boston, 6:10 p.m.

Kansas City at Cleveland, 6:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Angels at Miami, 6:10 p.m.

Arizona at Milwaukee, 7:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Minnesota, 7:10 p.m.

Baltimore at Houston, 7:10 p.m.

Detroit at Chicago White Sox, 7:10 p.m.

St. Louis at Colorado, 7:40 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers, 9:10 p.m.

Atlanta at San Francisco, 9:15 p.m.

Saturday, May 27 Schedule (All Times Central)

Oakland at New York Yankees, 12:05 p.m.

Texas at Toronto, 12:07 p.m.

Detroit at Chicago White Sox, 1:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Minnesota, 1:10 p.m.

Seattle at Boston, 3:05 p.m.

San Diego at Washington, 3:05 p.m.

Cincinnati at Philadelphia, 3:05 p.m.

Kansas City at Cleveland, 3:10 p.m.

Arizona at Milwaukee, 3:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Angels at Miami, 3:10 p.m.

Baltimore at Houston, 6:15 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers, 6:15 p.m.

New York Mets at Pittsburgh, 6:15 p.m.

St. Louis at Colorado, 8:10 p.m.

Atlanta at San Francisco, 9:05 p.m.

Sunday, May 28 Schedule (All Times Central)

Oakland at New York Yankees, 12:05 p.m.

Texas at Toronto, 12:07 p.m.

Kansas City at Cleveland, 12:10 p.m.

Los Angeles Angels at Miami, 12:10 p.m.

Seattle at Boston, 12:35 p.m.

San Diego at Washington, 12:35 p.m.

Cincinnati at Philadelphia, 12:35 p.m.

Detroit at Chicago White Sox, 1:10 p.m.

Arizona at Milwaukee, 1:10 p.m.

Tampa Bay at Minnesota, 1:10 p.m.

Baltimore at Houston, 1:10 p.m.

St. Louis at Colorado, 2:10 p.m.

Atlanta at San Francisco, 3:05 p.m.

Chicago Cubs at Los Angeles Dodgers, 3:10 p.m.

New York Mets at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.