By Jon Weisman
When shortstop Hanley Ramirez ended the fifth inning of the second game between the Dodgers and Diamondbacks by starting a 6-3 double play, it stopped something of a bizarre streak for the Dodger infield.
To that point, neither Ramirez, second baseman Dee Gordon or third baseman Juan Uribe had a putout or an assist behind starting pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Ryu doesn’t exactly specialize in inducing wormkiller after wormkiller, but the second-year lefty from Korea did have a groundball percentage of 50.6 last year, according to Fangraphs. This game was something different.
Through three innings, the only grounder off Ryu was a first-inning single by Paul Goldschmidt, and the only ball a Dodger infielder touched was a line drive by Miguel Montero that was caught by Adrian Gonzalez. Ryu had three strikeouts and five outfield putouts.
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In the fourth, it really started to seem like Gordon, Ramirez and Uribe had made some kind of weird pact. Goldschmidt hit a line drive that Gordon allowed to go off his glove for an error. Then, after Ryu struck out Martin Prado, Ramirez fielded what should have been an inning-ending double-play ball, but didn’t throw to Gordon coming across and didn’t step on second base in time to even get one out.
Forced essentially to retire five batters in the inning, Ryu got Trumbo to fly out to a running Yasiel Puig, then struck out Gerardo Parra.
Finally, in the fifth, the Australian tide turned. After Didi Gregorious’ drive to Andre Ethier for the Dodgers’ seventh outfield putout, Ryu had a rare lapse in control, walking Arizona reliever Josh Collmenter on nine pitches. Then A.J. Pollock hit it on the ground to Ramirez, who broke ranks and made the double play happen.
The extra work that Ryu had to do in the fourth and the fifth might have forced him out of the game an inning early. Ryu finished his first outing of 2014 throwing 87 pitches, allowing only two hits and the walk while striking out five — and also singling to lead off the top of the third for good measure. The Dodgers led, 6-0, when Ryu’s day ended.
Behind Chris Withrow in the bottom of the sixth, Ramirez then started all three outs, beginning another 6-3 double play with runners on first and second and none out, and then ending things with a 6-3 assist on Montero.
Uribe, meanwhile, still waited for some action, any action at all, at third base.
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