Ryu Hyun-jin struggles in relief and drops his fourth victory of the year.5 innings, 2 runs
Ryu Hyun-jin (36, Toronto Blue Jays) earned his fourth win of the season at Coors Field, the “graveyard of pitchers,” but a reliever stole the show.
Ryu started the Blue Jays’ 2023 Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series game against the visiting Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, U.S., on Sunday (Aug. 2) and allowed two runs on four hits, including a home run, and two walks over five innings.
With the game tied 4-2 in the bottom of the sixth inning, Ryu had already given the mound to Garcia.
Garcia handed the baton back to Hennessis Cabrera with runners on first and second in the bottom of the sixth, and Cabrera hit a game-winning three-run homer to left off Nolan Jones to preserve the win for Ryu.
Ryu improved to 3-1 on the season, raising his ERA from 2.25 to 2.48.
Coors Field, which sits at an elevation of 1610 meters above sea level, is known for its low air resistance, which allows for long balls. It’s a hitter’s paradise, but a pitcher’s hell.
Ryu, who is coming off a year of left elbow surgery and has won three straight games with a slow curveball in the low 100s of miles per hour, threw mostly cut fastballs in the same family as his four-seam fastball early in the game, with fewer changeups and curveballs to account for Coors Field’s unique characteristics.
Ryu took the mound at Coors Field for the first time in four years and one month since August 2019, when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and faced a tricky Colorado slugger, Charlie Blackmon, who led off the first inning with a career .343 batting average against him.
Blackmon, who had 12 hits against Ryu, including three doubles and a home run, worked a full count and took eight pitches before hitting a line drive up the middle that was easily picked off by the shortstop, who had already moved to second base.
After cooking Blackmon, Ryu threw cut fastballs to Ezequiel Toba and Elias Díaz for back-to-back strikeouts to end the first inning.
After breezing through the second inning, inducing three ground balls on six pitches, Ryu struck first in the third inning when a 0-0 pitch hit the back of the strike zone.
After a leadoff single to right by left-handed hitter Nolan Jones, Ryu threw a four-pitch changeup to right-handed slugger Eleuris Montero before giving up a two-run homer to left.
The changeup didn’t drop, but instead lodged in the middle of the strike zone.
One out later, after walking Blackmon, Ryu gave up a double to Tova that hit directly off the left field fence.
Ryu got Dias to ground out in front of the pitcher to keep the bases loaded, then struck out No. 4 left-hander Ryan McMahon on a dropped curveball to give himself some breathing room.
Down 1-2 in the bottom of the fourth thanks to Brandon Belt’s leadoff solo homer, Hyun-Jin Ryu faced his second bump in the road after giving up a single to Hunter Goodman and a walk to No. 7 Johnson.
Ryu’s four-seam fastball to Jones was right in the strike zone, but the umpire didn’t raise his hand, allowing Ryu to walk.
Ryu worked himself out of the jam by getting Montero, who had given up a home run in the previous at-bat, to ground into a double play shortstop to first base.
In the fifth, he retired three straight batters to end the inning.
Ryu threw 76 pitches on the day, including 35 four-seam fastballs, 19 cut fastballs, 12 curves and 10 changeups.
Toronto’s Ernie Clement hit a game-tying home run off the left field foul pole in the top of the fifth inning with the score tied at 1-2 to save Ryu from the loss.
Then, catcher Danny Jansen, who shared a battery with Ryu, hit a huge two-run homer into the left-field stands with one out in the top of the sixth inning to give Ryu the game-winning run, only to have it wiped out in the bottom of the inning.
Colorado right-hander Chris Flexen, a former member of the Doosan Bears of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) who wrote the “reverse export myth” in his return to the big leagues, 카지노사이트킴 gave up four runs on three home runs in 5⅔ innings.