LOS ANGELES _ The labrum in his left shoulder torn sometime after the 2014 NLDS, Hyun-Jin Ryu needed 640 days to return to the majors. Melvin Upton Jr. needed just six pitches to come up with an appropriate welcome, a leadoff home run that got the Padres started on a 6-0 win Thursday night in front of 44,759 at Dodger Stadium.
Alex Dickerson tripled and doubled in his first career multi-hit game, Derek Norris and Alexei Ramirez each had two hits and the Padres scored in four of the first five innings to support left-hander Drew Pomeranz, who was working on his own personal milestone coming into the game.
A starter in Colorado's experimental four-man rotation who bounced between the bullpen and rotation in two years in Oakland, the 27-year-old Pomeranz pushed past 100 innings for the first time in his career Thursday night by tying a career-high seven innings for the ninth time in his career.
He scattered two hits and two walks, didn't give up a run despite throwing 43 of his 105 pitches in two stressful innings to open the game and retired the final 11 hitters he faced in yet another start that could put Pomeranz in NL Manager Terry Collins' crosshairs should he need replacement arms for Tuesday's All-Star Game at Petco Park.
After all, Pomeranz came into the game with the ninth-best ERA among all qualifying starting pitchers and his .191 opponent batting average ranked third in the NL behind former Cy Young winners Clayton Kershaw (.185) and Jake Arrieta (.187).
Really, the biggest case against Pomeranz's inclusion is his track record _ or lack thereof.
Of course, the only thing Pomeranz can do about that is continue to pitch, which he'll continue to do despite being four years removed from a career-high 1471/3 innings in the majors and minors in 2012.
Pomeranz threw just 88 innings last year, but is expected to push that total past 180 innings in his first year as a full-fledged starter.
"I don't think we'll have any hesitation with him," Padres manager Andy Green said before Thursday's game. " ... He always felt like he didn't get the chance to compete into the game (in Colorado). He loves going deep in the ballgame."
He went much deeper than Ryu in his return to the mound.
His velocity in question while sitting in the mid-80s during a minor league rehab, the Dodgers' 29-year-old left-hander hit 90 mph on his first pitch to Upton.
His next three offerings all hit at least 90 mph, too. Then Ryu dropped in an 86-mph slider before ramping the fastball up to 92 mph.
That was just Upton's speed, the ball exiting his bat at 102 mph as it traveled 405 feet to clear the wall in right-center for his second to lead off a game this season.
Pomeranz added a run-scoring single in the second inning, Ramirez doubled in a run in the fourth and Yangervis Solarte added an RBI double in the fifth ahead of the knockout blow, Dickerson's two-run triple to right.
To be fair, Yasiel Puig complicated matters when he took a step in and couldn't recover in time to keep the drive from sailing over his head, but the ball left Dickerson's bat at a blistering 108 mph.
Indeed, Ryu was done.
He struck out four, walked two and allowed six runs on eight hits, five of them for extra bases.
