Just when you thought he couldn’t get any luckier, Ryu Hyun-jin, 37, the “monster pitcher” of the Hanwha Eagles in the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), blows another win. The bullpen has blown five wins, the most in the league.
Ryu threw five innings of two-hit ball with two walks and six strikeouts against the Daejeon LG on March 13. After struggling with 12 hits in two consecutive games, he shut down the LG bats, lowering his season ERA from 4.28 to 4.10. He ranks 10th among 20 pitchers in Korea in regulation innings pitched.
His command was a little shaky in the first inning, giving up straight balls to Hong Chang-ki and Park Dong-won, but he retired the rest of the batters in order. After striking out Austin Dean with the bases loaded in the third inning, he struck out a total of six batters through the fifth inning. He gave up a leadoff single to Park Dong-won in the fifth, but struck out Park Hae-min, Koo Bon-hyuk, and Hong Chang-ki in succession. Hong Chang-ki, one of the best hitters in the game, looked for a fastball on the outside of the plate and struck out on three pitches.
After facing heavy hitting in the previous two games, Ryu’s deciding pitch was a fastball.
Five of his six strikeouts came on fastballs, which he utilized heavily. His fastball (39), which topped out at 149 mph and averaged 144 mph according to Trackman, was followed by a curveball (23), changeup (11), two-seam (8), and cutter (6). He had fun throwing a two-seam to lefties, something he rarely does.
Ryu, who is scheduled to make two starts this week, threw 87 pitches before being pulled in the fifth inning. With a 2-0 lead, he went down and earned his seventh win of the season. With the Hanwha bullpen ranked first in the league in late-inning ERA, 파워볼실시간 it was expected to be able to protect a two-run lead. In the sixth inning, Park struck out three batters with two strikeouts, and in the seventh, Kim Seo-hyun overcame a bases-loaded jam with an infield grounder and consecutive strikeouts.
However, the Hanwha bats were unable to add any runs, and the nervousness was realized in the eighth inning. Kim Gyu-yeon walked leadoff hitter Hong Chang-ki, and Shin Min-jae followed with a sacrifice bunt to put runners on first and second. Hanwha switched pitchers again to Lee Sang-kyu. Entering the game with a win for the first time this season, Lee gave up a single to right-center to Austin and allowed pinch-hitter Choi Seung-min to steal second.
In the process,
Catcher Choi Jae-hoon’s throw to second base hit shortstop Hwang Young-mook’s glove and bounced to right field. The throwing error allowed Choi Seung-min to advance to third base, creating a one-out, three-run crisis. Hanwha’s infield defended forward, but LG’s No. 4 hitter Moon Bo-kyung lined a six-pitch low changeup from Lee Sang-kyu over the center field fence. The RBI double tied the game at 2-2. Ryu’s seventh win was gone.
The Hanwha bullpen has now blown five wins for Ryu this year. On May 14 against the Daejeon NC (2 runs in 6 innings), May 25 against the Munhak SSG (1 run in 6 innings), June 12 against the Jamsil Doosan Doosan (2 runs in 6 innings), and June 11 against the Gochuk Kiwoom (3 runs in 6 innings), the bullpen was unable to protect the lead five times before today. Five relievers – Lee Min-woo, Joo Hyun-sang, Kim Kyu-yeon, Han Seung-hyuk, and Lee Sang-kyu – took turns blowing Ryu’s start with blown saves, the most in the league, and Hanwha fell to 2-3 on the day, snapping a three-game losing streak.
In 22 games this year, Ryu is 6-7 with a 4.10 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 125 innings pitched. 12 quality starts. That’s not quite what you’d expect after his ups and downs at the beginning of the season and over the summer, but it’s still the best on the team. It’s a stellar performance for a native pitcher in the entire league.
However, he hasn’t had much luck.
Except for his sixth win of the season against KT Suwon on March 31, when he allowed six runs (five earned) in five innings, supported by a batting lineup that exploded for 10 runs in the sixth inning. That’s the fewest wins of any pitcher in the top 10 in ERA. The bullpen has the most wins (5), but the Hanwha offense has also struggled on Ryu’s days, with two scoreless games, three one-run games, six two-run games, and 11 games with two or fewer runs scored.
With proper batting support and bullpen help, Ryu could have already won 10 games already. Hanwha only has 36 games left in the season, and Ryu is expected to pitch seven or eight more. He needs four wins here to reach 10 wins, and he can’t do it alone.