Ross Versus Ryu in First Half Finale

I’de like to apologize to everyone for our lack of game coverage over the last week or so. When I say our, I actually mean myself. Sometimes life gets in the way of Baseball, and writing. It sucks, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. I just moved into a new place recently, and have been pretty burnt out. I promise after the break we’ll return to our regularly scheduled game coverage. Thank goodness for Stacie. She hasn’t missed a beat over the last couple of weeks while I’ve been MIA. I can’t say enough how much I love her. Check out A.J.’s walk-off sac fly from last night. Uribe kept hitting poor A.J on the head even though A.J. already took a few knocks to the head during the game.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Dodgers Lineup versus San Diego

Gordon 2B

Crawford LF

Puig RF

Gonzalez 1B

Ethier CF

Uribe 3B

Ellis C

Rojas SS

Ryu P

Tyson Ross-7-9 vs. Hyun-jin Ryu-9-5

The goal coming into the final game of the first half is for the Dodgers to be in first place during the all-star break. Thanks to their 1-0 win on Saturday evening, they will be assured of at least being in a first place tie. As of now, the Dodgers (53-43) have a one game lead over the Giants in the NL West. I didn’t even realize that the club is actually tied for the best record in the league. The National League has been somewhat mediocre this year, and the Brewers have fallen into the toilet of recently. That’s caused all three division races to tighten up.

A.J. Ellis’s walk-off sacrifice fly to right plated the winning run in the bottom of the ninth. That gave the Dodgers a 2-1 edge in this four game series. The Dodgers will try to win the final game in the series finale on Sunday afternoon.

San Diego will send big right hander Tyson Ross to the mound. The 27-year old Berkeley native is 6’5, and has faced the Dodgers twice this year, losing in both games. Overall Ross is winless against the Dodgers. He’s 0-3 but with a 3.33 ERA. At Dodger Stadium he is 0-1 in three games. Although he has pitched better than his record has indicated. Ross has been on a roll lately. Back on July 2nd, he pitched a complete game shutout over the Reds at Petco Park.

Overall on the season he is 7-9 with a 2.93 ERA. Ross has whiffed 117 and walked 43, which gives him an 8.6 whiff per nine rate. Away from Petco Park, he has a 3-4 record, and a 4.05 ERA. He’s held opposing hitters to a .194 average at Petco Park. But on the road he’s been vulnerable, allowing hitters a .273 batting average against. That’s a pretty big drop off so hopefully the Dodgers can take advantage. The Dodgers are batting .291 (23 for 79) with one home run and eleven runs driven in, in 93 plate appearances against Ross.

The Dodgers will counter with Hyun-jin Ryu. The left hander is coming off what was probably his worst start of the season, against Detroit. Ryu has faced the Padres twice this year, and has beaten them once and has a no-decision.

Ryu has pitched very well against San Diego. He is 2-0 with a 0.93 ERA in three starts versus the division rivals. San Diego has been unable to hit Ryu, who has limited the Padres to a .244 (10 for 41) batting average against, with a .572 OPS. The Padres have just one run driven in against Ryu in 45 plate appearances. Overall Ryu has been good. He is 9-5 with a 3.65 ERA. He’s whiffed 83 and walked 21 in 17 starts. He’s also given up 106 hits in 98.2 innings. That’s good enough for a 1.2 WHIP.

Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

The Dodgers hope to go into the all-star break on a good note. That means winning this series would be very nice. Both clubs have struggled to score runs, and I would expect runs to be at a premium. Although the ball always carries better during the day at Dodger Stadium. We might see some home runs if we’re lucky. Remember the Padres are the worst hitting club in the majors this season.

Stacie and I would like to thank you guys for hanging in there with us throughout the first half of the season. We’ll have plenty of interesting content during the break, so we hope you’ll stick around. The Dodgers will return to action on Friday evening to begin a long nine game road trip. They’ll open the second half with a three game series at St. Louis against their NLCS foes, the Cardinals.

It would be nice to end the first half on a win. We’ll see you guys after the game, and in the second half. Go Blue!