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SAN DIEGO -- Hyun-Jin Ryus stint on the disabled list was nothing more than a speed bump. Ryu came off the DL to pitch four-hit ball over seven innings, and Matt Kemp singled in the go-ahead run to help the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres 7-1 Sunday and avoid a three-game sweep. Ryu (14-6) struck out seven and walked none while allowing one run in his first start since a loss at Atlanta on Aug. 13, when he hurt his right hip. Ryu improved to 4-0 lifetime against the Padres. "It didnt take long for me to find the rhythm," Ryu said through a translator. "I knew it was two weeks, but it felt like I was just there a few days ago. Overall I just felt comfortable, and thats why I was able to pitch comfortable." Ryu allowed a double to Yangervis Solarte leading off the first and then Yasmani Grandals two-out RBI double to tie the game. But then the left-hander settled down and retired his next 14 batters. The Padres got only two more baserunners against Ryu, both on singles, and one was erased during a double play. "I thought he was good," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. "First guy gets on, then it seems like he got a quick gear. By the sixth he looked a little bit tired, and in the seventh we let him know that was pretty much it. He seemed to know it." Padres manager Bud Black said Ryus four-pitch mix was impressive. "This guy is a good pitcher. The Dodgers just didnt go get him from Korea for nothing and give him a lot of money. He is talented," Black said. "Its a fastball that has velocity and darting action. He has a hard slider in the high 80s (mph) that he commands and he has a good hook, a 12-to-6 hook that he can land for a strike, and a good change. "He is truly a complete pitcher." The seven runs were one more than the Dodgers scored in their previous three games combined. They lost by one run in extra innings in the first two games of the series. The Dodgers kept their 2 1/2-game lead over the San Francisco Giants, who beat Milwaukee 15-5 for their sixth straight win. "Its always good for us," Mattingly said. "Were in position to control our own destiny." Adrian Gonzalez had four hits. He also scored the first of the Dodgers four runs in the eighth against three relievers. The Padres four-game winning streak was snapped. They had beaten the NL West leaders in extra innings the first two games of the series. Kemp broke a 1-all tie when his single to centre with one out in the fifth brought in Hanley Ramirez. Ramirez walked against lefty Eric Stults (6-15) and advanced on Gonzalezs single to left. The Dodgers piled it on in the eighth, when they had five hits and two walks. Juan Uribe, who also came off the DL, hit an RBI single and Darwin Barney had a two-run single. Uribe added an RBI double in the ninth. Stults tied for the major league lead with his career-high 15th loss, which gives him 28 losses in two seasons. The Dodgers had been 1 for 15 with runners in scoring position in the series before Scott Van Slyke hit a broken-bat single with two outs in the first to bring in Yasiel Puig. Puig reached on a hustle double opening the game when his fly ball -- made more challenging by the sun -- fell between right fielder Rymer Liriano and second baseman Jedd Gyorko. Puig advanced on a passed ball and scored on Van Slykes single to right. Liriano threw to third to get Kemp to end the inning. PREGAME PUIG The Dodgers star outfielder played catch pregame with two kids. He was instructing one of them on how to hit the cutoff man, something hes better at showing than actually doing. Puig then went over to the stands, signed autographs and posed for photos with fans for several minutes. ADRIAN GONZALEZ It was Gonzalezs sixth career four-hit game at Petco Park, the most by any player in the stadiums 11 seasons. Gonzalez was with the Padres from 2006-10. TRAINERS ROOM Dodgers: To make room for Ryu and Uribe, reliever Carlos Frias and infielder Miguel Rojas were optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque. Padres: Black said closer Joaquin Benoit has inflammation in his pitching shoulder that needs to settle down for seven to 10 days. Kevin Quackenbush will serve as the closer. UP NEXT Dodgers: Roberto Hernandez (2-1, 3.52 ERA) is scheduled to start the opener of a three-game home series against Washington. He is 3-1 with a 1.19 ERA in four career starts vs. the Nationals. Padres: Tyson Ross (12-12, 2.64) pitches the opener of a four-game home series against Arizona. San Diego has won six of his last eight starts. Garrett Temple Jersey . CSKA received the heavier punishment of playing its next European home game behind closed doors, after its supporters displayed racist and far-right symbols in the Czech Republic during a 2-1 loss to Viktoria Plzen on Dec. Vlade Divac Jersey .com) - Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh called Joe Flacco the NFLs best quarterback last week. http://www.cheapsacramentokingsjerseys.com/ .C. -- The Bobcats announced theyve signed centre Justin Hamilton to a 10-day contract. Vince Carter Jersey . The flanker began his comeback from a right shoulder injury by coming off the bench on Saturday when Wales opened with a victory over Italy. Warburton replaces Justin Tipuric, one of three changes announced on Tuesday by coach Warren Gatland. Bogdan Bogdanovic Jersey . -- The defending Canadian womens curling champions squandered an opportunity to take sole possession of first place in the standings Tuesday at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.TORONTO - Inbounding the ball from behind the basket with 2.7 seconds left on the shot clock, at least there would have been if they were working, Nets guard Shaun Livingston found veteran and future Hall of Famer Paul Pierce in the corner. "One," counted down Raptors public address announcer Herbie Kuhn - filling in for the busted shot clock - over the Air Canada Centre speakers as Pierce stepped back and drained a 19-foot dagger to put Brooklyn up by eight. The Raptors had led by one a couple minutes earlier until Pierce went on a fourth-quarter rampage, scoring nine straight points to put the game out of reach in the dying minutes. This was precisely what Dwane Casey and his club feared most, whether they cared to admit it or not. "I thought we played a little bit as expected as it is our first playoff game," Casey said after a 94-87 loss to open the Raptors first playoff series in six years. "I thought we took ourselves out." They had battled their own inexperience, working through an early and understandable case of playoff jitters, they contended with spotty officiating and even navigated around an arena malfunction that knocked both shot clocks out of commission for most of the second half. For all their shortcomings on a Saturday afternoon they cant be particularly proud of, the game was in reach until the final few minutes, winning time. Thats when experience comes into play, more so than any other moment, any other game situation. The Nets have it, the Raptors dont and its something you cant simulate or prepare for. "You just get that feeling," said Pierce, who has played in more postseason games - now 137 - than anyone on the Nets roster. "[Ive] been in those situations a number of times. I dont get rattled in the fourth quarter, down the stretch, in playoff settings. Ive been in pretty much every playoff setting that you can imagine so I just try to stay calm." Torontos leading scorer had no such luck. Making his playoff debut, DeMar DeRozan didnt knock down his first field goal until late in the third quarter after missing his first eight shots. After the game he sat in front of his locker, dejected, disappointed, frustrated. Hes a student of the game and has studied playoff basketball but finally he understood what its like to live it, to experience it first hand. "Its not rocket science," he had said Thursday. No, but its a lot harder than it looks. "I just missed shots," DeRozan maintained, but it was more than that. "They overplayed him," said Kyle Lowry. "They really denied him the ball. Weve got to find ways to screen him and get him more looks, get him open a little bit sooner and quicker and get him to his sweet spots." At this time of year theres a learning curve, and the quicker DeRozan picks it up the better off the Raptors will be. If the playoffs are indeed about mental over physical strength, as Chuck Hayes so eloquently put it Friday, no one does it better than Pierce and the wily Kevin Garnett. "I grew up watching this guy," 27-year-old Greivis Vasquez said of Pierce, nine years his senior. "I went to his basketball camp, Nike camp, back in the day, imagine playing against him right now. Hes still doing it." Nothing could faze Pierce with the game in the balance, none of the Raptors multiple defenders - some bigger, some smaller and quicker - not even the hostile reception he got from Torontos electric, sellout crowd. Draped in white, the ACC was buzzing for nearly three hours in support of the home team, making things - or at least trying to - challenging for the visiting Nets. "The atmosphere of the crowd, the intensity, the noise, we need that every night," said Lowry, who finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and eight assists in his first playoff game since 2009. "I can tell you that the Brooklyn Nets were saying speak up, we cant hear, its loud in here. It definitely affected them a little bit." "Paul, the truth is youre old, ugly and slow," one fan, sitting behind the Nets bench, yelled at Pierce. Moments after enacting his reveenge, in the form of a nine-point fourth quarter, Pierce threw his headband into the stands, only to have it tossed back it him.dddddddddddd The Nets forward tossed it to another fan, and back it came again. "Third time was the charm," he joked after the game. "I really feed off the emotions of the crowd, especially on the road," said Pierce. "Its fun when you get to go on the road and beat a team. I think its more gratifying than winning at home. I love those moments." Ultimately that was the difference in Game 1. The Raptors shot 39 per cent, committed 19 turnovers and got little-to-no contribution from three of their starters, but those final minutes - the moment Brooklyn embraced, the moment Toronto seemed petrified of - is what really did them in. As Casey wisely pointed out, this series is a long way from over. DeRozan, like his young teammates, is a sponge. He and the rest of his team will watch film, theyll study and if they learn from their mistakes and evolve in those crucial moments of this most crucial time of the year theyll be ready to throw the next punch at the ACC for Tuesdays Game 2. "Believe me, this is nowhere near disappointing," Casey said. "We are a young team and we won the division. Were third in the conference. Were going to fight our butts off to win this series. This does not identify us as far as who we are if we dont come out on top. This is one game. The series is not over." Carrying the load While DeRozan and sophomore Terrence Ross struggled in their playoff debuts, 21-year-old Jonas Valanciunas looked like a polished veteran, utilizing his size and strength advantage to get Toronto going early in the game and dominate the boards throughout. "Ill tell you what, I thought Jonas played big time," Casey said of his young centre. "He really did. He grew up today and that was huge for us." With 17 points and 18 rebounds - the most by any Raptor in the postseason - the sophomore became the second player in franchise history to record a double-double in his first playoff game. Shot clock malfunction Early in the third quarter, the shot and game clocks above both baskets went blank, causing a short delay. After about five minutes, play resumed but in place of the two clocks - still powerless - Kuhn, with the use of a timer, called out time markers over the PA on each possession. "It was awkward," Vasquez said, playing without shot clocks for the remainder of the game. One flickered on directly after the final buzzer sounded. "It reminds me of back in the day when we used to play with the shot clock in the corner." "It was definitely tough because youre so used to looking up, being able to see the time," DeRozan added. "It was tough but we just tried to help each other." Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment issued a post-game statement explaining the incident. "We experienced a signal path failure," the MLSE release read. "Our backup system for the temporary shot clocked relied on the same source. New cables will be run tonight and tomorrow to ensure no issues arise on Tuesday and the NBA will inspect both the fixed and backup systems before Game 2." The stat There have been 453 best of seven series in the NBA, going into this season, and the winner of Game 1 has moved on 77 per cent of the time. The quote(s) "Guys, I used the wrong choice of words out there," said Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri, conducting a brief press conference at halftime to apologize for using profanity in an attempt to fire up the crowd, speaking to hundreds of fans outside the ACC before the game. "I apologize to the kids out there. Nothing against [the Nets], just trying to get the fans going. You guys know how I feel. I dont like them, but I apologize." "Well I feel the same way so, and Ive got his back," Vasquez said after the game, coming to the defence of Ujiri. "Hes part of the family. Thats all Ive got to say. Hes our guy and were going to go fight for him no matter what. We dont like any of them either. Thats how we feel. All of us." 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