Ryu Perfect Through 7, Dodgers Achieve LA Record 17 Hitless Innings Pitched In Win
CHAVEZ RAVINE (CBSLA.com) — If you're an optimistic person, like Dodgers pitcher Hyun Jin Ryu, you realize that the Dodgers achieved history after all on Monday night.
The Dodgers achieved a Los Angeles record with their 17th consecutive inning without giving up a hit.
Ryu, who is less than a week off the disabled list, was six outs away from pitching baseball's 24th perfect game, and thus would have achieved back-to-back no-hitters for a ball club for the first time in baseball history, following Josh Beckett's no-hitter on Sunday in Philadelphia.
As it was, Ryu, who came within outs of solidifying his name amongst the names of baseball's history, threw seven innings of perfect baseball, giving up a single run as the Dodgers defeated the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 on Monday night.
The bid for the perfect game, as well as the no-hitter, came to an end in the eighth inning, when Todd Frazier led the inning off with a double to shallow left field.
Ryu received a thunderous ovation.
Ryan Ludwick then followed with a single to left, before Chris Heisey hit a sacrifice fly to center, scoring the first run of the game for Cincinnati.
Ryu was pulled after Brayan Pena singled to left.
The Dodgers have historically had two no-hitters that occurred in the same season only once. That occurred in the 1956 season, with Carl Erskine's no-hitter on May 12 of that year against the New York Giants, and on Sept. 25, it was Sal Maglie against the Phillies.
In 1917, the St. Louis Browns threw no-hitters in back-t0-back days. However, the second no-hitter came in the second game of a double-header, meaning there was a game in between the no-hitters.
Ryu's previous longest bid for a perfect game lasted 2.1 innings.
In the seventh inning, Ryu also knocked in the second run of the ball game, scoring Justin Turner from third base, who had walked after forcing a 16-pitch at-bat.
By the eighth inning, the ball game was picked up by ESPN 2, as well as MLB Network, as fans without Time Warner Cable had been unable to watch the game's events unfold.
Carl Crawford scored Ryu from second later in the seventh inning with a double to left center, giving the Dodgers a 4-0 lead.
That lead became 4-3, after Hamilton doubled to right-center field off of Brian Wilson.
Kenley Jansen was called on to close the inning.
