by Cary Osborne
Starting pitchers will generally say that it’s not a matchup of who’s on the mound in a Major League game. But if they did, River Ryan could say that he was just as good in his Major League debut as reigning National League Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.
Ryan, the Dodgers’ №4 prospect, pitched 5 1/3 innings and allowed no earned runs in the Dodgers’ 3–2 win against the Giants at Dodger Stadium on Monday.
The former two-way player who began his professional career in the Padres organization as an infielder, pitched into the sixth inning of a game for the first time in his pro career.
“There were definitely a lot of emotions — up and downs all day,” said the 25-year-old right-hander. “But I spent some time with the Lord earlier today and prayed when I got on the mound. It helped me calm my nerves. Yeah, it was an experience for sure.”
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Ryan is the third Dodger starting pitcher to make a Major League debut this season, joining Landon Knack and Justin Wrobleski. He is one of four rookie starting pitchers on the active roster, along with Gavin Stone.
Stone is the only Dodger pitcher from the season-opening starting rotation who is on the current active roster. Veteran left-hander James Paxton was designated for assignment on Monday to make room for Ryan, giving Stone that distinction.
Dodger starting pitching has been battered by injuries this season, which has created a path for the young pitchers to make an impact.
Together, they’ve been a life preserver in rough waters. River Ryan’s start was another example of that.
The group of Ryan, Knack, Wrobleski and Stone have made 29 starts (18 by Stone) and collectively have a 3.12 ERA.
“They’ve been able to kind of allow us to sustain winning, while at the same time cutting their teeth and gaining experience,” said manager Dave Roberts. “So that’s kind of the best of both worlds, where a lot of times you just don’t have that. Now you look at the young players that we have that have come through the system — River obviously by way of trade (with the Padres in 2022) but still started out in A-ball — and so the other guys have come up and have pitched meaningful innings for us. Those things are just invaluable because I don’t think all big league innings are created equal. And so when you’re pitching in Dodger Stadium and against the division rival or on the road against a big beefy ballclub, those are things that guys can take from and build on.”
Ryan walked the first Major League batter he faced — Jorge Soler. He allowed a hit to the second — LaMonte Wade Jr. Yet he didn’t allow a run in the first inning. The Giants scored once on him on a Will Smith passed ball in the fourth inning.
But Teoscar Hernández got the run back when he hit a solo home run off Snell in the bottom of the fourth inning. Snell allowed two earned runs over six innings.
Hernández drove in all three Dodger runs on Monday with RBI singles in the sixth and eighth innings.
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Ryan allowed bookend singles in the sixth, with a fielder’s choice in between. After allowing a one-out single to Giants catcher Patrick Bailey in the sixth, Roberts took the ball from Ryan.
He walked off the mound to a standing ovation. He pointed to the sky to thank God, and then patted his chest.
“It was great,” Ryan said. “Ground starts to shake a little bit, everybody gets loud. That was really fun to be a part of.”
River Ryan is part of a rookie pitching group that has handed out life preservers was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.