Consistent Hyun-Jin Ryu helps Dodgers beat Pirates for 90th win

PITTSBURGH >> If Hyun-Jin Ryu keeps winning immunity challenges, he might not have to leave the island after all.

While other Dodgers starters pass the time on the DL or search for their mechanics, Ryu has become the Dodgers’ most consistent starter. He held the Pittsburgh Pirates to one run on four hits in six innings of a 5-2 victory Thursday, the eighth time in his past nine starts Ryu has allowed two runs or less.

The win was the Dodgers’ 90th of the season. It comes at the earliest point in the season (by date or games played) in franchise history. They become only the 12th team since 1900 to win 90 games or more in the first 126 games of a season and only the third to get there by August 25 (joining the 1998 New York Yankees and 2001 Seattle Mariners).

“I like wins,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said when told of his team’s latest milestone.

Ryu has pitched reliably enough to keep them coming. Over his past nine starts, Ryu has a 2.13 ERA, a 1.22 WHIP and the Dodgers have won eight of his nine starts. He has not tued the clock back to 2013 and ’14 before shoulder and elbow surgeries robbed him of some velocity. But he looks like a very close relative of that pitcher.

“This is the guy we saw,” said Roberts, who was on the San Diego Padres’ coaching staff the last time the Dodgers had a healthy Ryu in their rotation. “Maybe a couple ticks up in the velocity (back then). But as far as the command, the feel, pitching to all quadrants (he is the same).

“Hyun-Jin, from what everyone says, is a big-game pitcher and he’s trying to ea continued opportunities. You respect that.”

It would probably take a series of catastrophes to put Ryu in position start a big game for the Dodgers this season. That duty will fall to Clayton Kershaw, Yu Darvish, Rich Hill and Alex Wood when the big games of October arrive.

But Ryu has pitched well enough to give the Dodgers an option if things go awry – and something to think about if their collection of left-handed options in the bullpen continue to struggle. Only Luis Avilan has pitched well recently (12 1/3 scoreless innings over his past 14 appearances). The two lefties acquired at the trade deadline, Tony Watson and Tony Cingrani, have retued spotty results so far.

“Right now I’m not too conceed. I’m just conceed about my next outing,” Ryu said through his interpreter. “That’s a decision that I won’t be able to control, so I’m not too conceed about it.”

Before Thursday’s game, Roberts indicated September could be a time to experiment.

With Darvish expected back this weekend, Kershaw and Wood the following week and Brandon McCarthy starting a rehab assignment soon, the Dodgers will once again have a surplus of starting pitchers. That could provide Ryu an opportunity to audition for a postseason bullpen role.

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“We haven’t talked about that yet,” Roberts said. “But if that is on the table for any of the players I think that, yes, we would have to give him an opportunity to have some success and put him in that situation at some point in September – instead of where a lot of teams run the season out and then supplant guys in the ’pen and assume they’re just going to pitch well in that different role.

“Whoever we decide to do that with, I do see us giving them that opportunity at some point in September.”

There is no need for Curtis Granderson to audition for a postseason role. But it doesn’t hurt that he has made a positive impact quickly after being acquired from the New York Mets last week.

He hit a solo home run in the fourth inning Thursday to break an early tie and put the Dodgers in front to stay. It was his third home run in six games since joining the Dodgers.

Granderson has only gone 4 for 22 as a Dodger but three of the hits have been home runs and he also has seven walks, six RBI and five runs scored.

“I just think he’s been around the game long enough so the game has essentially slowed down for him,” Roberts said of Granderson’s transition to a new team. “He knows who he is as a player. He swings at strikes, takes balls and conducts an at-bat every single time. He’s a pro out there on defense. He’s into every single pitch.

“The character, that allows for the relationship part in the clubhouse to be very easy. He’s come in with a lot of high billing and he’s lived up to it.”

The Pirates closed the gap to one run in the seventh inning and had the tying run at third base when Pedro Baez struck out Andrew McCutchen. But the gap widened in the top of the eighth when Yasmani Grandal and Adrian Gonzalez hit back-to-back home runs off Pirates reliever Angel Sanchez who was making his major-league debut. For Gonzalez, the home run was the 310th of his career but only his second this season and first since May 26.

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