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Ryu wins No. 12

July 28, 2014

Los Angeles Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu works against the San Francisco Giants in the first inning of a baseball game Sunday, July 27, 2014, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

(Yonhap) — Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers picked up his 12th win of the Major League Baseball (MLB) season on Sunday against the San Francisco Giants, holding the National League (NL) West rivals to three earned runs in six innings.

Ryu struck out seven and walked one in his six frames to improve to 12-5 for the year. His ERA went up slightly from 3.39 to 3.44.

Ryu is well ahead of the pace from his rookie season in 2013, when he didn’t get his 12th win until Aug. 13. He ended last season at 14-8 with a 3.00 ERA.

With the win, the Dodgers improved to 59-47, best in the NL West, while the Giants fell to 57-48, 1.5 games back of LA.

Ryu retired the first six batters he faced on just 17 pitches, but walked Dan Uggla to start the third inning. He struck out the next two batters before giving up two straight singles, the latter an infield hit by Hunter Pence that gave the Giants a 1-0 lead.

The Dodgers tied things up in the top fourth on Juan Uribe’s RBI single.

In the bottom half of the inning, Brandon Crawford hit a two-out single to restore the Giants’ one-run lead.

The Dodgers weren’t going away, putting runners on second and third with one out. Adrian Gonzalez went down swinging on a pitch down in the dirt with two strikes, and when catcher Buster Posey threw to first to complete the strikeout, speedy Dee Gordon charged home from third to tie the game again.

Later in the same inning, Hanley Ramirez hit a go-ahead single, and Carl Crawford followed up with a triple that brought home Ramirez for a 4-2 lead for LA.

Ryu gave up a solo shot to Posey with two outs in the fifth but the Giants couldn’t get any closer. Ryu retired the side in order in the sixth and handed things over to the bullpen to start the seventh.