Los Angeles Dodgers' Ryu Hyun-jin has won his fifth straight game despite having his scoreless streak snapped and giving up a season-high 10 hits.
Ryu labored through six innings, working around those 10 hits to limit the Pittsburgh Pirates to two runs in a 7-2 victory at PNC Park in Pittsburgh on Saturday (local time). Ryu improved to 7-1 for the season, striking out three and giving up no walks on 93 pitches, 66 for strikes.
Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu delivers in the fifth inning of the team`s baseball game against the Pittsburgh Pirates in Pittsburgh, Saturday, May 25, 2019. (AP)
Ryu entered the game not having allowed a run in 31 straight innings, the longest active streak in the majors, and tossed a clean first inning to extend it to 32.
But it ended in the bottom of the second, when catcher Russell Martin's error on a throw to third allowed Josh Bell to score from second base on a dribbler just off the home plate.
The Pirates added another run later in the second inning with a single by Cole Tucker, but they didn't manage another run off the South Korean left-hander despite creating plenty of traffic on the base paths.
Ryu saw his ERA rise from 1.52 to 1.65, still the best in the majors. He remains the only starter with an ERA below 2.00 in the bigs.
During his 32-inning scoreless streak, Ryu gave up only 12 hits while striking out 28 and walking two. Before this game, he had last allowed a run in the first inning against the San Francisco Giants on May 1.
Ryu only needed seven pitches for a clean first inning, after the Dodgers spotted him a 1-0 lead in the top first. But Josh Bell greeted him with a leadoff double in the second, and came around to score on Martin's error to tie the game. Tucker's RBI single put the Pirates ahead 2-1.
The Dodgers tied things again in the top third, though Ryu continued to get knocked around. Starling Marte and Bell hit back-to-back singles with one out in the third, and Ryu needed a 6-4-3 double play ball off the bat of Melky Cabrera to escape the inning unscathed.
Ryu helped his own cause in the top fourth, when he drove in the go-ahead run with a towering RBI double off the right-center wall. It was Ryu's first RBI since April 2018.
But he got himself into another jam in the fourth, after a single and a double opened the frame for the Bucs.
Ryu walked the tightrope. Tucker's fly ball to center wasn't deep enough to bring in a run, and Jose Musgrove, the Pirates' starter, lined out to shallow right, with the runners stuck in the same place. And Adam Frazier lined out to center for the final out, as Ryu dodged yet another bullet.
The Pirates got consecutive singles off Ryu to open the fifth, but the pitcher induced his second double-play ball, with Bell being the victim this time.
Ryu allowed a leadoff double to Kevin Newman in the sixth but retired the next three batters to keep the Pirates at bay again.
Julio Urias relieved Ryu to open the seventh. Ryu had pitched at least seven innings in each of his past five outings before this one.
The Dodgers opened up the game with a three-run fifth, and added another in the sixth to build a 7-2 lead. (Yonhap)