In 1st start vs. Yankees, Ryu comes up empty

Ryu Hyun-jin suffered his third loss of the season in his first start against the New York Yankees early yesterday in Korean time.

In the first game of a doubleheader against the Yankees, who are in third place in the American League East, Ryu surrendered three runs on five hits over six innings, the 11th quality start for the MLB rookie. He struck out four and walked two.

It was the third straight time the 26-year-old southpaw failed to get his seventh victory of the season.

The game also drew attention from Korean fans as it was Ryu’s first duel with Ichiro Suzuki in the U.S., but the 39-year-old Japanese outfielder had the upper hand in the first faceoff, hitting a solo homer off Ryu in the sixth. He went 2-for-3 against Ryu in the game, including a single in the second inning.

The Yankees’ Japanese starter, Hiroki Kuroda (7-5), outpitched Ryu (6-3), giving up two runs and eight hits in six and two-thirds innings.

The Dodgers lost the first game, 6-4, but Ryu’s teammate, Yasiel Puig, homered to complete a dazzling debut in New York, helping Los Angeles beat the Yankees, 6-0, in the second game of a day-night doubleheader.

Hanley Ramirez capped a six-hit day with a pair of RBI singles in the nightcap. Still, he looked quizzically at a group of reporters when they gathered to talk about perhaps his best day of an injury-marred season.

“It’s all about Puig,” he said.

Not quite, but Dodgers manager Don Mattingly thinks adding the Cuban with just 15 major league games of experience to a lineup with Adrian Gonzalez and Ramirez maybe the key to the Dodgers getting out of the NL West cellar.

“Hanley, for me, I’ve said it since he came over. I think he’s one of the best hitters in the game,” Mattingly said. “The way Yasiel’s swinging the bat, if Adrian continues to swing the bat the way he’s capable of, that’s a pretty potent trio of guys.”

Chris Capuano (2-5) pitched three-hit ball for six innings in his comeback from the disabled list. The Dodgers rebounded from a loss to former teammate Kuroda in a matchup between injury-ravaged teams with $200 million payrolls.

“Would’ve been better to get two, but we’ll take one,” Mattingly said. “It felt good.”

In the first meeting between the teams in New York since the Dodgers clinched the 1981 World Series title with a Game 6 victory at old Yankee Stadium, New York got help from reliever Ronald Belisario’s two errors on the same play in a three-run seventh.

The clubs played a split doubleheader because of a rainout Tuesday night. The announced attendance for both games between the rivals who’ve met in 11 World Series topped 80,000, but there were many empty seats.

BY MOON GWANG-LIP, AP [joe@joongang.co.kr]