Dodgers: Takeaways from a pitchers’ duel in the Big Apple

The Dodgers were defeated by the New York Mets on Saturday evening in a game that went as planned. It was a low scoring pitchers’ duel.

In the day and age of “juiced baseballs” it is not very often that pitchers’ duels see both starting pitchers allow no runs.  But, that is exactly how Saturday’s game went with Hyun-Jin Ryu and Jacob deGrom both pitching seven shutout innings.  Ryu allowed just two hits across seven innings to keep the Mets’ scoreless through seven innings.

The game had a postseason feel as the Mets are fighting for their playoff lives and the Dodgers are going to have to finish strong to secure home field throughout the National League playoffs.  The pitchers’ duel became a matter of which starting pitcher blinked first and the answer was neither.  The game came down to a battle of the bullpens.

LA’s biggest scoring opportunity against deGrom came in the seventh inning with two outs.  They put a runner on first and second base but were unable to scrape a run across.  Instead the game was decided on a bases loaded double by Rajai Davis in the eighth inning.

Here are the takeaways from Saturday’s game.

Ryu Rebounds

As previously discussed in Friday’s series preview, the Mets’ series was going to be a big playoff test for the rotation and especially Hyun-Jin Ryu.  Ryu entered Saturday’s start with an ERA over six in the month of September.  At least for one start, against a quality opponent, it appears Ryu has gotten back on track.

Ryu went toe-to-toe with fellow Cy Young contender Jacob deGrom for seven innings and neither pitcher blinked.  Ryu allowed just two hits over seven innings while striking out six.  Perhaps most importantly, Hyun-Jin did not walk a single batter.  His signature control was back and the closest he came to allowing a run was on a long fly ball by Todd Frazier.  The pitch was a changeup on the outside corner and in a good location.

Urias fails a postseason test

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Dave Roberts knows with the division locked up, now is the time to test players in certain scenarios to see how they react prior to the postseason.  Saturday he did exactly that, putting Julio Urias in the game with runners on base.  For most of the season, Julio has started innings off clean and taken a multiple inning role out of the bullpen.

Saturday night he came into an unknown situation and looked uncomfortable.  Urias hit the first batter that he faced, Brandon Nimmo, and then he followed that up with a walk to load the bases.  He battled Rajai Davis who delivered a bases clearing double on a changeup on the outside part of the plate.

While the results did not work out on Saturday night, this is the kind of managing Dave Roberts will do for the final two weeks of the regular season.  He needs to prep players and especially relievers, for situations they could be asked to come into during the postseason.  If Urias comes into a similar situation in October and delivers, he could thank Doc for throwing him into the fire in the regular season.

The Dodgers will go for a series victor on Sunday night when they send Walker Buehler out to the mound.  It will be the final game on the east coast during the regular season, so it would be nice to take that final long flight coming off of a series win.