The last few years have been difficult for Los Angeles Dodgers starter Hyun-Jin Ryu, who missed all but one game during the 2015 and 2016 seasons after undergoing shoulder surgery and dealing with an elbow issue.
In 2017, Ryu’s first season back, he did not quite look like his old self, which was expected for someone who missed two years due to arm injuries. Ryu is feeling completely healthy now though, and primed for a much better campaign.
That looked to be the case on Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium in the 4-0 win against the Oakland Athletics. The 31-year-old tossed six shutout innings of one-hit ball, striking out eight and walking just one.
Ryu only had eight or more strikeouts three times in his 24 starts last season.
After the game, Ryu explained his success was tied to using his full arsenal of pitches as opposed to heavily throwing his changeup, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com:
“I had a pretty bad outing in my first start, so going into today’s game, I wanted to do well,” he said. “But I think it was more about my approach today. I used to rely more on the changeup, but tonight I utilized more of the pitches I had.”
Before the start, Ryu said that he prefers to be on a regular routine between starts, pitching every fifth day. He was starting on eight days of rest Tuesday, which didn’t seem to have an adverse effect.
That’s a positive development considering the Dodgers have more off days remaining this month.
