LOS ANGELES — Boy, that Home Run Derby sure did a number on Teoscar Hernandez’s swing.
Debunked numerous times over the years by research, the myth that players who participate in the Home Run Derby emerge with their swings ruined took another hit – actually three of them – with Hernandez’s night on Monday.
Hernandez celebrated the one-week anniversary of his Home Run Derby victory by driving in all three runs in a 3-2 Dodgers victory over the San Francisco Giants.
The win was the Dodgers’ fourth in a row since emerging from the All-Star break. Hernandez is 7 for 13 with two home runs since returning from the break.
He took Giants starter Blake Snell deep for a solo home run in the fourth inning then drove in runs with two-out singles in the sixth and eighth innings. The eighth-inning RBI was his 27th this season with two outs in an inning.
That settled a typically close Dodgers-Giants game. Fifty-two of their meetings since the start of the 2015 season have been decided by one run.
A two-way player in college (where he hit .343 for UNC-Pembroke), River Ryan didn’t start pitching full time until after the Dodgers acquired him from the Padres in a spring 2022 trade for reserve outfielder Matt Beaty. He has moved quickly on the development conveyor belt in the Dodgers’ farm system to make his major-league debut on Monday night.
If there were nerves, they might have been evident in a walk to the first batter he faced and a single allowed to the second. But left fielder Miguel Vargas looked more unsettled. He bobbled LaMonte Wade Jr.’s single, luring Jorge Soler to try and go first to third. Vargas threw him out at third then looked very shaky before catching Heliot Ramos’ routine fly ball at his feet for a second out.
Vargas and Ryan both settled in from there. Getting 10 swings-and-misses on a six-pitch repertoire, Ryan retired eight consecutive batters before walking Wade to start the fourth inning.
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Things got messy from there. A Patrick Bailey single and a ground out put runners at second and third. A passed ball by Will Smith brought in an unearned run before Ryan struck out Mike Yastrzemski to avoid further damage.
Hernandez matched the run with his homer off Snell and gave the Dodgers a 2-1 lead with his first RBI single in the sixth.
Ryan pitched into the sixth inning – the first time he has done so in his professional career – and became the first Dodgers starter to retire a batter in the sixth inning since Tyler Glasnow on July 5.
But Ryan Yarbrough gave up the lead on a solo home run by Tyler Fitzgerald in the seventh inning.
The Dodgers broke the tie in the eighth with some help from the Giants’ defense. Left fielder Luis Matos and center fielder Heliot Ramos converged on Kiké Hernandez’s drive to the warning track leading off the inning. But neither made a move to catch it. It bounced off the wall for a double.
Shohei Ohtani struck out, Smith walked and Freddie Freeman bounced into a force out, bringing up Teoscar Hernandez with two outs. He punched the go-ahead run-scoring single into center field.
More to come on this story.
Dodgers starting pitcher River Ryan throws to the plate during the second inning of their game against the San Francisco Giants on Monday night at Dodger Stadium. Ryan pitched 5⅓ innings, allowing one unearned run, in his major league debut. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
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