Dodgers 7, Diamondbacks 5: D'Backs Get Hadoken'd by Ryu

Everything seemed to start off okay. Ian Kennedy and Hyun-Jin Ryu were exchanging zeroes through the first third of the ballgame. Kennedy had gotten into some trouble in the 3rd, including giving up a double to the aforementioned Los Angeles pitcher. Hey, it happens sometimes, just don't let it happen three times, cause that would be embarrassing.

However, in the 4th, Kennedy gave up a leadoff home run to Adrian Gonzalez. It was 1-0 going into the 5th, so it was still within reach. However, in that inning Kennedy gave up a double to Skip Schumacher which scored Carl Crawford, then later gave up a single to Andre Ethier that scored Schumacher. At this point, Kennedy was clearly struggling, and when Cliff Pennington lead off the bottom of the 5th with a single (his first hit as a RHB this year.) you'd figure that it would be a prime time for Kennedy to be pinch hit for. However, he wasn't, and was called up to bunt. Pennington made it to second on a wild pitch and Kennedy bunted him to third. A.J. Pollock drove Pennington in on a groundout to make it 3-1.

The decision to keep Kennedy in the game became even more suspect in the following frame. He recorded the first two outs with relative ease, but then gave up a THIRD hit to Ryu. Ryu, who up until this year had played in Korea where they have universal DHness. Then the floodgates opened. Carl Crawford doubled, Skip Schumacher walked, and Matt Kemp drove in two runs on a single. Pitching Guru Matt Reynolds came in and gave up an inherited run on an Adrian Gonzalez single to make it 6-1.

At this point, the Strike Zone became a sort of amorphous blob of thoughts and feelings. Martin Prado struck out looking to start off the D'Backs portion of the 6th, and he was not too pleased. A look at gameday showed that he had every right to not be pleased. More on this later.

Josh Collmenter pitched a clean 7th, which was punctuated by Miguel Montero throwing out Justin Sellers on a pickoff play at first. The bottom of the inning lead off with Alfredo Marte and Josh Wilson hitting singles. Cliff Pennington was then called out on strikes. Probably because of the aforementioned zone being odd (as well as the one last night.), Pennington was visibly frustrated and hit his bat on the plate, which broke it. It also caused Jim Reynolds, who was an accomplice of Craig James while at SMU, tossed Pennington from the game. Eric Hinske and Eric Chavez had back to back singles to bring the game to a 6-3 score.

Pennington's ejection lead to some shuffling in the field which lead Martin Prado to second base and Cody Ross onto the field for the first time this season. Tony Sipp pitched a clean 8th, and the D'Backs were able to get two more runs in the bottom of the inning off Kenley Jensen from a solo shot from Martin Prado and a pinch hit RBI double by Aaron Hill. It would seem his hand is feeling a little better. The inning ended with Cody Ross taking strike three on a pitch that could only be described as "THAT WAS LIKE A FOOT INSIDE WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SMOKING JIM REYNOLDS NOBODY LIKES YOU!"

Sipp came back to pitch the 9th. He got Gonzalez to fly out, but gave up a double to Ethier which lead to another chapter of the Heath Bell Experience(TM). He promptly gave up a double to Ramon Hernandez which gave the Dodgers an insurance run and making it 7-5. That was all that happened, as the D'Backs went meekly into the 9th.

Makes you think, doesn't it?

Trevor Cahill takes on Josh Beckett tomorrow at 1:10 PM Arizona time to determine who wins the series. Be there!