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Maeda and Ryu’s tag-team act works as Dodgers rally for a victory over the Cardinals

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Just past 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Hyun-Jin Ryu rose from his seat inside the Dodgers bullpen and climbed atop a mound. A pitcher warming up should not sound an alarm. But these are strange times for the pitching staff of the Dodgers.

Earlier in the afternoon, hours before a 7-3 victory over St. Louis, manager Dave Roberts outlined Ryu’s isolation on the roster. Squeezed out of the rotation, Ryu had yet to transition into the bullpen. Roberts could not say when Ryu would pitch again. As Thursday’s fourth inning unfolded, an opening appeared.

Trailing by two runs, the Dodgers staged a rally against St. Louis starter Michael Wacha. Runners manned the corners with two out. Yasiel Puig stood at the plate. Logan Forsythe loosened up in the on-deck circle, looming as a pinch-hitter for pitcher Kenta Maeda. The baton seemed set to pass from Maeda the starter to Ryu the reliever.

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The uneasy alliance, one Roberts would describe as “pretty lethal,” would have to wait. Puig stroked an RBI single. Forsythe returned to the dugout. Maeda climbed the steps, carrying his bat and a .071 batting average to the plate. He fouled off a fastball. He fouled off another. He chipped a changeup foul, then a curveball. At last, on the seventh pitch of the at-bat, Wacha left a curveball over the middle. Maeda sent a dribbler down the third-base line, placed well enough to drive home two runs.

Maeda got thrown out at second base, but the gambit by Roberts worked. The offense staged another flurry in the fifth, piling on two more runs and knocking Wacha out of the game. Along the way, Ryu returned to the bullpen mound. When the inning ended, the door opened, and he emerged for the first relief appearance of his career.

The duo of Maeda and Ryu may appear an unlikely tag team. Maeda wants to pitch longer. Ryu wants to return to the rotation. Together, they still pacified the Cardinals on Thursday. After Maeda recovered from a first-inning stumble to blank the Cardinals for the next four innings, Ryu spun four scoreless innings behind him. Maeda earned the win. Ryu picked up the save.

The pair helped the Dodgers (28-20) take two of three from St. Louis. The team has won six of eight heading into this weekend’s showdown with the Chicago Cubs.

“It was a big win for us,” Roberts said. “The story tonight certainly was Ryu. Just the unselfishness to do something he’s never done before.”

Hyun-Jin Ryu gave up two hits in four innings of relief against the Cardinals on May 25.
(Harry How / Getty Images)
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The return of Maeda pushed the club into an awkward position with Ryu. Roberts described the situation as “very delicate,” given Ryu’s contractual leverage and his injury history. As the team shifts to a more traditional five-man rotation, Ryu occupies the sixth position in the hierarchy. The team wants to use him as a reliever. Ryu prefers notice for his outings so he can maintain his workout schedule.

Ryu can refuse any minor league assignment. The team has not asked him to consider accepting a demotion to stay fresh as a starter, Roberts said. A trade would reduce the team’s stockpile of arms. And Roberts said Ryu still “serves a really meaningful purpose on our club.” Perhaps Thursday offered a harbinger of their plans — the Dodgers spent several days talking to Ryu about the shift to script an assignment.

Maeda required time to find a groove. He had not pitched since May 10. The team gave him two weeks to rest a minor hamstring issue. St. Louis bullied him in the first inning. Cardinals third baseman Jedd Gyorko hit a two-run double and Yadier Molina splashed an RBI single.

“It just took some time to get my rhythm back,” Maeda said. “I was throwing a lot of balls, and not attacking the zone, and my off-speed pitches were flat. I was able to work on that throughout the innings and get my rhythm back.”

A three-run deficit should not be considered insurmountable. But the Dodgers had managed only three runs in the first two games of this series, and required 13 innings to score twice Tuesday.

After being silenced by Cardinals starters Lance Lynn and Mike Leake, on Thursday they faced Wacha, another imposing right-handed pitcher.

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A solo homer by Chase Utley dented Wacha in the second. Wacha started to wobble in the fourth. The Dodgers stressed him with singles by Cody Bellinger and Enrique Hernandez. Puig managed to thread a cutter through the right side to bring home a run. The hit led to Roberts’ sticking with Maeda for his crucial at-bat.

In the fifth, Wacha gave up a leadoff single to Chris Taylor and then walked Corey Seager. Into the fray came left-handed reliever Brett Cecil. He chucked a pair of wild pitches, which brought home Taylor. Seager scored on a double by Adrian Gonzalez. Taylor added an RBI double in the sixth.

Ryu gobbled up the last 12 outs. For one night, the unconventional tandem worked.

“I’m a starter at heart,” Ryu said. “I believe that I will get another opportunity to start this season. That was also part of the conversation. It was just a one-time appearance. You can’t really say if I’m good at this role or bad at this role.”

andy.mccullough@latimes.com

Follow Andy McCullough on Twitter @McCulloughTimes

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