'5 innings no-heater'2021 CYA WINNER is back, Ohtani no hit in 4 at-bats, 3K...LAD 3-8 SF
Jul 25, 2024
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Ray started the game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on the 25th (Korea time) and pitched brilliantly, allowing four four outs and allowing one run in five innings without giving up a single hit. San Francisco won 8-3, with Ray winning his return match. It is the first time in about a year and 11 months that Ray has tasted the joy of victory since the game against the Cleveland Guardians on September 4, 2022.
Ray won the AL Cy Young Award with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2021, then signed a five-year, $115 million FA contract and moved to the Seattle Mariners. He played his part in 32 games in 2022 with 12 wins and 12 losses and a 3.71 ERA, but after injuring his elbow in his first game last year, he suffered Tommy John Surgery in May and went into long rehabilitation.
Ray, who took the mound in the big league for the first time in about a year and four months since the game against Cleveland on April 1 last year, used 44 fastballs, 27 sliders, and 15 knuckle curves, respectively, out of 86 pitches. Fastball confinement was up to 97 miles and an average of 95.2 miles, faster than 94.8 miles in 2021, when it won a Cy Young Award.
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Then, he continued his power as the winner of the Cy Young Award by cooking with three outs in four consecutive innings until the fifth inning. In the second inning, he struck out Kike Hernandez, Nick Ahmed, and Shohei Ohtani, and in the third inning, he also silenced Smith, Freeman, and Theosca with ground balls, strikeouts and foul flies to third base, respectively.
In the fourth inning with a 2-1 lead, he grounded out to third base and caught Miguel Vargas with a fly ball to center field, then stabbed Chris Taylor with a 96.1-mile fastball toward his body to strike out. The fifth inning was also a three-and-out. Ray, who handled Kike with a fly ball to right field and struck out Ahmed with a swing and miss, threw Ohtani with a 95.5-mile fastball on the high course for the fifth pitch in the ball count 2B2S, and struck out swinging again.
The Dodgers starter is Tyler Glasnow, who returned from the injured list due to back pain on the 10th. He gave up two runs in five innings, giving up four hits and four walks. He struck out four, and his four-seam fastball velocity averaged 96.9 miles, up to 98.2 miles. However, he picked up the loss and went 8-6 with an ERA of 3.47 this season.
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Glasnow, who stabilized by blocking the fifth inning with three outs, handed over the mound to Anthony Banda in the top of the sixth inning, trailing 1-2.
The Dodgers' first hit was hit by Taylor after two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning, trailing 1-2. Taylor hit a double to right-center off right-hander Tyler Rogers' 83.8-mile low sinker. However, Kike hit a ground ball to the second base and did not connect to the score. San Francisco tied up five hits and three walks against the Dodgers bullpen in the top of the eighth inning, scoring six runs and running away 8-1.
Ohtani struck out two and struck out one fly ball in three showdowns with Ray, and in the eighth inning, he struck out left-hander Eric Miller at first base with no outs. No hits in four at-bats, three strikeouts. His batting average was 0.310 (122 hits in 393) and his OPS fell to 1.022.
The Dodgers, which had five consecutive wins since the opening of the second half, maintained their lead in the NL West with 61 wins and 42 losses, but their gap with the second-place San Diego Padres (54 wins and 50 losses) narrowed to 7.5 games.
jhno@sportschosun.com
