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It wasn't all smiles and roses in the Dodgers 6-2 win over the Colorado Rockies.
Ask PSY. It really is a sad world he is inhabiting right now. A year after his "Gangnam Style" took over the world he's not getting the same amount of love for his new single "Gentleman". It was bad enough that he was overtaken in the Korean pop charts by the 63-year old Cho Yong-Pil last week. But on the day he came to Dodger Stadium to help renew his PSY-mania, he got upstaged by his fellow countryman Ryu Hyun-Jin.
Ryu had 12 strikeouts in six innings, the most by a rookie pitcher since Hideo Nomo recorded 13 at Shea Stadium against he Mets on Aug. 20, 1995. Ryu's fastball had a little more juice to it being clocked around 93 mph making his 73 mph out pitches that much more devastating.
"More than my fastball, my curveball was really working tonight compared to other nights," Ryu said. "I decided to mainly stick to those two pitches tonight."
It worked to a tee. The only problem he faced was against Carlos Gonzalez. Gonzalez hit a solo homer in the first inning to give the Rockies the briefest of leads, and walked in the fourth and sixth innings.
And just to endear himself more to those who showed up for Hanley Ramirez's bobblehead, Ryu added an RBI single bumping up his batting average to .333.
"It's fun," Ryu said about hitting although he denied aiming for the Silver Slugger award.
After the game Ryu exchanged an autographed jersey with PSY in exchanged for the performer's signature sunglasses with the case autographed.
"I'm very happy," Ryu said about meeting PSY. "I'm just really thankful that we won as well."
PSY did have his moment of glory. In the middle of the fourth inning he was shown dancing his signature moves that sent the crowd of 47,602 in a frenzy. It was brief though. When it was over, the people returned to the game.
As for the game, the Dodgers got their revenge against the shellacking Ted Lilly took Monday night. Four innings against Rockies starter Jorge De La Rosa, the Dodgers amassed 11 hits and six runs with A.J. Ellis the only hitter not to get a base hit, although he did work a walk in the second inning.
Jerry Hairston, Jr. and Nick Punto as one-two hitters singled in both the first and second innings, both scoring in the first inning and both driving home a run in the second inning for the 4-0 lead. Hairston made a spot start after Carl Crawford was scratched after feeling a pain in his hamstring.
"With Carl we're cautious with him," manager Don Mattingly said. "We'll see how he feels tomorrow."
Ryu's performance also overshadowed Hanley Ramirez whose first start of the season came on his aforementioned bobblehead night. After coming off the disabled list on Monday, Hanley grounded to first in the first inning. But to make up for it, he crushed the first pitch he saw in the third inning to left field to give the Dodgers the 5-0 lead.
Ramirez added a double in the fourth inning and struck out in the seventh and started a double play on Carlos Gonzalez's grounder in the eighth inning.
Hanley Ramirez, in his first of the season after coming off the disabled list yesterday, grounded to first in his first at-bat. But in the third inning, he made sure the crowd got what they came for. He crushed the first pitch in that at-bat to left field for the 5-0 lead.
"I saw the first game he played in rehab, and his timing was already there which was kind of amazing to me," Mattingly said. "Once you get your timing down, you got it. And Hanley's one of the guys who's got it all the time."
The Dodgers return to .500 for the sixth time this season and will look to win their third consecutive series on Wednesday where Josh Beckett faces Juan Nicasio.
