The Los Angeles Dodgers put on a show for their home fans at Dodger Stadium on Opening Day, slugging a Major-League record eight home runs to rout the Arizona Diamondbacks, 12-5.
While the offense was the story of the game, so too was Hyun-Jin Ryu as he made his first career Opening Day start in place of Clayton Kershaw. The left-handed ace began the season on the 10-day injured list as he recovers from shoulder inflammation.
Ryu did his best Kershaw impression on Thursday afternoon, tossing six innings of one-run ball, allowing just four hits while striking out eight and walking none.
When discussing the outing, Ryu credited his teammates providing an abundance of early run support as one reason he managed to pitch at a high level, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“I was feeling good from the get-go, and getting that run support from my teammates definitely helped me in terms of getting into a good grove. From that point on it was very comfortable because we had the lead and I felt good in general.”
Ryu is coming off the best season of his Major League career in 2018. He was offered and accepted the qualifying offer from the Dodgers at the beginning of the offseason, so he is once again playing for a new contract in 2019.
He has always proven to be solid for the Dodgers when healthy, but avoiding injury is the biggest question mark with him. Ryu is 100 percent healthy right now though and looked like how he did in 2018 on Opening Day, which is definitely a good sign for the Dodgers moving forward.
