Following Sunday’s 9-3 pounding of the NL West second-place Arizona Diamondbacks by the Dodgers with only 42 games left to play in the 2019 regular season, and with the Dodgers holding a comfortable 19-game lead over said Diamondbacks, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was asked a question that immediately raised eyebrows among the gathered media in the Dodger Stadium interview room.

“Have you sort of, in your mind, thinking about how you measure up to [the Houston Astros’] three starters compared to your guys?”

Being exceptionally kind to the guy asking this question, Roberts, the consummate professional, answered the question as one would expect, without showing his astonishment that this question would even be asked with nearly a month and a half remaining in the regular season.

“No. Obviously, they’re playing really well right now and it’s a very good ball club, but I think that, as far as Houston, those guys are way down the road. We’re more concerned about the Marlins right now.”

The Miami Marlins are, of course, who the Dodgers face next beginning on Tuesday evening for a three-game series at Marlins Park in South Florida to open a brief six-game road trip that will also take them to Sun Trust Park in Atlanta for three games against the NL East first-place Braves.

What made this question all the more ridiculous is that it came only minutes after Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched an absolute gem on Sunday afternoon in front of a Dodger Stadium crowd of 44,619, who witnessed the 32-year-old Incheon, South Korea native improve his record to a team-best 12-2 while lowering his ERA to an MLB-best 1.45.

Coming off a brief stint on the 10-day injured list for a sore neck that caused him to (thankfully) miss only one start, Ryu allowed no runs and only four hits (all singles), while walking one and striking out four in his 7.0 innings of work, needing only 91 pitches (58 strikes) to do so.

“He was very impressive, he didn’t skip a beat,” Roberts said of Ryu’s brilliant outing on Sunday afternoon. “He just kept on and he’s got such a good pulse and just the ability to keep making pitches, repeat his delivery.

“I thought the cutter was really good today, the change-up was there, curveball was sharp and changing eye level,” Roberts added. “So he did everything that he needed to do. It’s a good-hitting club over there and kept them off-balance.”

The Dodgers, on the other hand, had a field day off of Dbacks right-hander Mike Leake, whom Arizona acquired from the Seattle Mariners at the July 31 trade deadline. Roberts’ club scored eight runs on 10 hits (including four home runs) off of the 31-year-old / 10-year MLB veteran.

Two of those home runs were hit by Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI on the day. As for what the extremely popular Long Beach, CA native thought of Ryu’s outstanding performance, he echoed Roberts’ assessment.

“It was vintage Ryu, changing speed, pitching all four quadrants, keeping guys off-balance,” Turner said. “He’s like Houdini, man. He gets in trouble and he seems to always find a way out of it. He’s throwing the ball well for us.”

Asked about his two-home-run-day, Turner used a little play on words to described them.

“Both of them were little cutters that leaked back over the middle of the plate,” he answered with a deadpan expression on his face. “The first one I took off the end [of the bat], I thought I flew out to left, I didn’t think it was a home run. The second one I got pretty good.”

Turner later admitted that he had been told to use the “leaked” comment, although he wouldn’t say by whom.

With (probably) eight starts remaining in the regular season, it’s hard to imagine that Ryu will be able to maintain his current major league-leading 1.45. But even if he does not, what he has accomplished to date is absolutely mind-boggling.

Play Ball!

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