Dodgers beat Diamondbacks 7-5, win both Down Under
SYDNEY (AP) — The Los Angeles Dodgers felt right at home in their season-opening series Down Under.
Yasiel Puig had three hits and two RBIs to back a scoreless outing by Hyun-Jin Ryu and the Dodgers beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-5 at Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday.
Dee Gordon and Juan Uribe also had three hits for the Dodgers, who finished with 13 in beating Arizona starter Trevor Cahill for the first time.
Sunday's victory came after a 3-1 Dodgers win behind ace Clayton Kershaw in the opener Saturday.
Cahill (0-1) came in 6-0 with a 2.01 ERA in 10 career starts against the Dodgers, but left in the fifth trailing 3-0. He gave up eight hits with just one strikeout and was charged with five runs and four walks in four innings.
The Diamondbacks made three errors, two by catcher Miguel Montero.
After trailing 7-0, Arizona scored once in the eighth and four times in the ninth, including Mark Trumbo's two-run homer off closer Kenley Jansen with two outs. Jansen struck out Gerardo Parra to end a game that featured 14 pitchers and lasted a minute more than 4 hours.
"The first one I really enjoyed actually, this one not quite as much," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said of Arizona's late-inning rally.
"It was good to get it, and at the end of the day it's a win. But it's a kind of frustrating one. We walked seven guys the last four innings and we really gave them the chance to get back in the game."
Diamondbacks manager Kirk Gibson wasn't pleased with his team's struggles.
"He didn't command the (strike) zone very good at all," Gibson said of Cahill. "Not many strikes ... it was kind of hard to execute a game plan and get the ball where we need to get it.
"We also walked a gazillion today, hit two guys. You can't give a good team like the Dodgers that kind of opportunity. We made some bobbles in the field which is uncharacteristic and again it's a hard formula to try and beat these guys."
Beginning his second season in the majors, Ryu (1-0) held the Diamondbacks to two hits in five shutout innings. He struck out five and walked one. The left-hander had a strong rookie season last year, going 14-8 with a 3.00 ERA in 30 starts after seven seasons in South Korea.
"Overall, I'm really satisfied," Ryu said through an interpreter. "My fastball was in good command and fortunately my teammates were able to support me early in the game and give me a lot of confidence."
Trumbo also had an RBI single in the eighth, his first hit for the Diamondbacks. Martin Prado had a two-run single in the ninth.
Puig, who was 0 for 5 with three strikeouts in the opener, also made a nice running catch in right field on a liner off the bat of Aaron Hill with the bases loaded to end the Arizona seventh.
These were the first regular-season major league games played in Australia. The 162-year-old cricket ground was turned into a baseball park over two weeks, and nearly 80,000 fans attended the two games.
Paul Goldschmidt's first-inning single for Arizona extended his hitting streak to 21 games dating to Sept. 10 last season, the longest active streak in the majors.
"It was a great trip here, other than we lost twice," Gibson said. "There were a lot of Diamondbacks fans here and it's just too bad we couldn't have won a game for them.
"Credit to the Dodgers, they executed well, better than we did. We're not happy we lost twice here, but it's a 162-game season."
NOTES: Dodgers LF Carl Crawford, who is on paternity leave and didn't travel to Australia, is a dad. The team said his fiancee, Evelyn Lozado, gave birth to their first child, Carl Leo Crawford, in Arizona early Saturday morning. ... Before the game, Diamondbacks INF Didi Gregorius visited with a group of fans from his former Canberra Calvary team in the Australian Baseball League, where he played in 2010. ... The opening ceremonies that were scratched Saturday because of thunderstorms and light rain were held before Sunday's game, including the introduction of nearly 20 Australians who have played in the majors. Ex-Yankee Graeme Lloyd threw the ceremonial first pitch to Dave Nilsson, one in the dirt that got past the former All-Star catcher.
