Save for two brief stints on the 10-day injured list and a rare shaky outing, the 2019 season has been an overwhelming success for Hyun-Jin Ryu as he arguably emerged as the ace of the Los Angeles Dodgers pitching staff.
Coming off seven scoreless innings in his return from the IL, Ryu turned in a bit of a dud at SunTrust Park. He managed to strand a leadoff double in the second inning, but couldn’t do so again in the third and it led to the Atlanta Braves taking a 2-0 lead.
Ryu then surrendered back-to-back home runs to Josh Donaldson and Adam Duvall in the fourth inning, which held up as the difference in the Dodgers’ 4-3 loss. That snapped a stretch of 44.2 innings pitched without allowing a home run.
Ryu’s outing was his shortest since struggling at Coors Field, and like that start against the Colorado Rockies, he plans to quickly move forward, as seen on SportsNet LA
“Just like the Colorado outing, I think I can learn from this experience and really regain my focus and study the hitters again. Just kind of revisit the approaches that I have. I think I can learn from what happened and move on from it.”
With the loss, Ryu fell to 3-3 with a 2.55 ERA on the road this season. He’s been utterly dominant at Dodger Stadium, going 9-0 with a 0.81 ERA. One of those outings was against the same Braves, though Ryu shut them out and allowed just four hits in a complete game.
Saturday’s game saw Ryu’s overall ERA rise from 1.45 to 1.64, though he still leads the Majors by nearly a full run.
His even-keeled demeanor and ability to move on from a rocky start paid off the first time around, as Ryu bounced back to throw 13 scoreless innings his next two times out after the Rockies roughed him up for seven runs.
The left-hander even excelled in a return to Coors Field, as he allowed just three hits and held Colorado without a run over six innings.
