The Toronto Blue Jays’ Hyun-jin Ryu threw 83 pitches in 4⅔ innings of scoreless baseball on six hits, two walks and two strikeouts against the Boston Red Sox at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on April 18.
In terms of pitching, it was reminiscent of his comeback start against the Baltimore Orioles following Tommy John surgery, where he gave up four runs (four earned) on a whopping nine hits over five innings. But it didn’t take long for him to regain his form.
Ryu made his second start of the season against the Cleveland Cavaliers, tossing four shutout innings, and then earned his first win in 444 days by tossing five innings of two-run ball against the Chicago Cubs, before sweeping the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland in a rematch of the series to complete a personal three-game winning streak.
After having his best month of the year with a 3-1 record and a 2.25 ERA, Ryu continued his good form in September. He tossed five innings of two-run ball at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies, where he has struggled throughout his career, before facing the Oakland Athletics and, in his last outing, tossing a quality start (six innings, three earned runs or less) against the American League’s top-hitting Texas Rangers.메이저사이트
If there was a silver lining to his stellar performance, it was that he hadn’t gotten the win in any of his three starts in September, and that trend continued on the 18th. However, as mentioned earlier, Ryu’s pitching was shaky on this day. He stranded a whopping eight runners on base on six hits and two walks. Nevertheless, his 4 ⅔ innings of scoreless relief were a testament to his ‘crisis management’ skills.
The early part of the game was aided by the defense. In the first inning, right fielder Cavan Biggio made a “super diving catch” on leadoff hitter Sedan Raffaele, and in the second inning, with runners on second and third, shortstop Bo Bissett threw out a sprinting Rafael Devers at home plate, taking the pressure off Ryu’s shoulders. Ryu was more than up to the task.
Ryu got off to a shaky start in the third inning, giving up two hits to start the inning, but with runners on second and third, he quickly got out of the jam with a shallow fly ball and a grounder to third to end the inning, and then induced a double play to put runners on first and second in the fourth. However, he was unable to get past the fifth inning.
After striking out the side in the first inning, Ryu faced the prospect of giving up a run in each of the second through fourth innings, and in the fifth, he gave up a hit and a walk to put runners on first and second. Given his previous pitches, he had a good chance of escaping the jam, but Adam Duvall, who had doubled against Ryu earlier in the game, stepped up to the plate and Toronto made a quick move.
Ryu was coming off of 4⅔ scoreless innings of relief in a game where he had faced numerous threats. When asked after the game if the decision to pull Ryu was based on the fact that he was allowing a lot of runners on base and hard-hit balls, Toronto manager John Schneider said, “Boston had seven right-handed batters on base. Ryu tried to get out of the jam. That’s what he can do,” he said.
All things considered, the four-inning stretch, the fact that Ryu had thrown only 86 pitches since returning to the majors, and the outcome of the game made sense. The manager also weighed in. “Ryu can pitch in (clutch) situations, but it was a combination of his pitches and what he had shown in the previous innings,” Schneider said.
However, leaving the mound with just one out to win the game was certainly a disappointing decision for the fans and for Ryu. However, Ryu spoke to the local media after the game, saying that he had to accept it as a player.
CBS Sports praised Ryu for his “steady presence” after his start against Boston, while MLB.com’s Keegan Mathieson of Toronto wrote, “Ryu gave up a few runs, got some help (from the defense), but was still solid,” and “Ryu’s return is very valuable given the limited starting rotation with Alec Manoa struggling.”
Toronto, meanwhile, will have a day off on the 19th before returning to action on the 20th to continue the race for the American League Wild Card. Given the starting rotation, Ryu will start against the Tampa Bay Rays on April 24.