SEOUL– Maybe it was the Korean dinner that he bought for his teammates earlier in the week: Toronto Blue Jays’ starter Ryu Hyun-jin got a ton of run support in beating the Baltimore Orioles for the third time already this season.
Ryu closed out the first half of 2021 by limiting the O’s to a run in five innings at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore on Wednesday (local time), as the Blue Jays cruised to a 10-2 victory.
Ryu is now 8-5 with a 3.56 ERA as he closed the books on the first half of 2021.
“The guys all liked it, and we had a good time,” Ryu said about his outing at a Korean restaurant in Baltimore.
And the team had a good time on the field too. The Blue Jays put up a three-spot in the top first before Ryu even took the mound, and scored three more in the fourth and another in the fifth.
Ryu held up his end of the bargain by matching his season high with seven strikeouts.
Much had been made of Ryu’s unusually shaky changeup command in recent outings. And his bread-and-butter pitch looked better in this one, as he generated an elite 44 percent whiff rate (four misses on nine swings).
“I threw the changeup a lot better than in a few recent starts,” Ryu said. “Overall, this was the best command I have had of late.”
His cutter was also sharp, leading to five whiffs on 10 swings and a couple of swinging strikeouts.
The left-hander appears to be putting a disastrous month of June behind him. He was 2-2 with a 4.88 ERA in five starts last month, while surrendering six home runs and 11 walks — more than he’d allowed in April and May combined — in 31 1/3 innings.
He was charged with four earned runs in four innings in his first July start last week against the Seattle Mariners, but an encouraging outing against the Orioles should set up the 34-year-old veteran nicely for the second half starting July 16
“I pitched well early on in the season, but the month of June was disappointing,” Ryu said. “I put myself in a lot of tough situations in June. Now that the first half is over, I’ll try to get ready for the second half with a fresh mindset.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency