Ryu Hyun-jin (36, Toronto Blue Jays) has been switching pitches since returning from Tommy John surgery (elbow ligament splicing). What pitches will he use in his third start?온라인바카라
Hyun-jin Ryu will start the 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular season home game against the Chicago Cubs at 2:37 a.m. ET on May 13 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He will be looking to make his first start in 444 days since 27 May last year against the Los Angeles Angels.
Ryu, who has been rehabbing since going under the knife in June last year, took the mound for the first time in 426 days at home against the Baltimore Orioles on 2 May. He got off to a shaky start, giving up back-to-back long balls in the first inning to give up two runs, but quickly settled down with his crisis management skills.
He held them to three runs through five innings before giving up a home run to leadoff hitter Jordan Westberg in the sixth. Ryu finished the day with five innings and nine hits (one home run), one walk, three strikeouts and four runs (four earned).
Ryu Hyun-jin pitches in relief against the Baltimore Orioles on Sunday. /AFPBBNews=News1
In the first game, Ryu looked a little out of sorts. There were several times when his changeup, his main weapon, didn’t stay low and was driven to the middle of the strike zone, and he only induced one swinging strike with his changeup. Anything in the strike zone was taken.
Still, it was his curveball that got him through five innings. Throwing 20 curves, ¼ of his 80 pitches, Ryu used the unexpected to throw Baltimore hitters off their timing. His curveball, which has a large drop and is slow, was swung at 14 times by Baltimore batters, but was missed five times. According to local media such as the Toronto Sun, Ryu was pleased with his performance, saying, “Overall, it was good, especially the curveball.”
Five days later, on the 8th, against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the power of his changeup shone through. Most of Ryu’s pitches on that day found the outside corner of the plate. Cleveland batters were unable to get a good read on the changeup and ended up swinging and missing.
Charts of Ryu’s pitches against Baltimore on the 2nd (top) and Cleveland on the 8th. You can see that his changeup has stabilised. /Photo: Baseball Servant homepage by Galmuri
In the process, Ryu didn’t allow a runner to reach first base until the third inning, giving up four hits, one walk and two strikeouts. Although he did leave the mound in pain in the fourth inning when he was hit in the knee by an Oscar Gonzalez single, his performance up to that point was reminiscent of his prime. “I had better command today than I did in my last start,” Ryu said after his outing, according to Canada’s Sportsnet’s Aidan Zwelling, “especially my changeup, which was right where I wanted it to be. I can say that it worked well.”
Now, in his third start, Ryu will be looking to throw a variety of pitches, and given the Cubs’ line-up, it’s likely that he’ll be relying more on his changeup. With the exception of Ryu’s former LA Dodger teammate Cody Bellinger, the Cubs have right-handed hitters in centre field in Dansby Swanson, Patrick Wisdom, Ian Happ and Christopher Morel. With that in mind, he’s going to have to work a little harder on his changeup.
Ryu Hyun-jin. /AFPBBNews=News1
Ryu is 1-1 with a 3.00 ERA in four career starts against the Cubs. In his most recent start, in 2019, he threw seven innings of one-run ball with eight strikeouts and no walks. However, the Cubs have made a lot of changes to their roster in 2020 and beyond, parting ways with key players like Kris Bryant, Anthony Rizzo, and Wilson Contreras, so head-to-head stats don’t mean much. The player who has faced Ryu the most is Swanson, who is 1-for-8 with a .125 batting average.
As of the 13th, the Cubs are 61-56 on the season with a .521 winning percentage and are in second place in the National League Central. The Cubs, who recently knocked the Cincinnati Reds out of second place, have the highest run differential in the division (+71), trailing the first-place Milwaukee Brewers by 2.5 games. Their team OPS of .754 is also the fourth best in the National League. They’re not an easy opponent, that’s for sure.
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