S. Korean pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin earns first major league win

LOS ANGELES -- South Korean pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin of the Los Angeles Dodgers earned his first victory in Major League Baseball (MLB) on Sunday.
   
In his second career start at Dodger Stadium, Ryu pitched 6 1/3 strong innings and allowed two runs on three hits and two walks against the Pittsburgh Pirates, as the Dodgers won the game 6-2.

The Dodgers improved to 4-2, while the Pirates fell to 1-5.
   
Ryu, who also struck out six batters, is the eighth South Korean pitcher to record a win in the majors. His ERA this season is now at 2.13.
   
In his maiden start last week against the San Francisco Giants, the left-hander also pitched 6 1/3 innings and gave up three runs, two of them unearned, on 10 singles to take the loss.
   
Ryu threw 101 pitches, 67 of them for strikes, in his second consecutive quality start, referring to an outing in which a starter lasts at least six innings and allows no more than three earned runs.
   
Ryu gave up a leadoff single to Starling Marte in the top of the first and Andrew McCutchen followed up with a two-run home run, the first long ball Ryu's allowed in the big leagues. But the Dodgers promptly tied the score at 2-2 in the bottom first, thanks to a two-run single by Adrian Gonzalez. Ryu settled down after that, allowing just one more hit until he left the game with on
out in the seventh.
   
The Dodgers went up by one in the third as Matt Kemp hit a sacrifice fly. They gave Ryu a bit more breathing room in the fifth, with Gonzalez driving in another run with a single.
   
The Dodgers made it 6-2 in the seventh, on a solo shot by Justin Sellers and an RBI single by Gonzalez.
   
Gonzalez went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs to pace the Dodgers' offense.

Ronald Belisario, Matt Guerrier and J.P. Howell, the three relievers used after Ryu, held the Pirates to only a hit over the final 2 2/3 innings to preserve the victory. (Yonhap News)