Ryu Dazzles in Blue Jays Win over Braves
It’s not surprising, but it’s still impressive.
Hyun Jin Ryu was once again spectacular Wednesday night. After a shaky five inning outing last week against the Athletics, Ryu returned to form with seven commanding innings against the Atlanta Braves. Home starter Max Fried and Ryu were locked in a pitcher’s duel early, but Teoscar Hernandez homered twice to pull the Blue Jays in front and secure Ryu’s victory in a 4-1 Blue Jays win.
After missing with his first pitch of the ballgame to Ronald Acuña Jr., Ryu registered a first-pitch strike to 14 straight Atlanta batters. He got ahead and stayed ahead all night, and even after giving up a solo shot to William Contreras in the fifth he quickly settled back into dominance.
With two outs in the third, Braves first basemen Freddie Freeman stepped into the box and twitched his bat in the zone. Ryu got ahead with a first-pitch cutter and put Freeman in a deep hole with a high fastball. Freeman stepped away from the plate and stared into right field with a surprised look on his face after watching strike two fly by.
The Atlanta slugger then swung over the third pitch changeup and became one of Ryu’s six strikeout victims. Through seven starts, Ryu has shown the best control of his career at age 34 and he continues to provide Toronto’s rotation with much-needed consistency and length.
“As a starter it’s really nice to go deep,” Ryu said. “Obviously I want to go a minimum of six to seven innings per game. I think the most important thing is how you manage your pitch counts early in the game and throughout the whole game.
In the fourth inning, catcher Danny Jansen threw down seven different signs before Ryu nodded and began his windup. The pitch was a curveball that Ozzie Albies swung over for strike two. It took the Blue Jay lefty just 50 pitches to get through five innings and he finished his outing having thrown only 94 bullets.
Despite Ryu's quality start, the game was tied when Hernandez stepped into the box to face Luke Jackson in the seventh. Hernandez stared towards the mound as Jackson's first pitch of the night cut towards the inside half of the plate.
Hernandez turned on the fastball, sending it straight back out towards centre field and over the wall. The Toronto outfielder added a two-run shot in the ninth to seal the victory and lifted his season OPS to .844.
“I know if I put a good swing on the ball it’s gonna go a long way," Hernandez said.
After taking the lead, Montoyo turned to Tyler Chatwood to again retire Atlanta's top of the order in the eighth, and A.J. Cole followed for his first save of the year.
Prior to Wednesday’s start, Blue Jays Manager Charlie Montoyo said with starters like Robbie Ray and Ryu, the team always has a chance to win. When Ryu pitches like he did tonight, that chance will be pretty high.
“He was back to Ryu,” Montoyo said postgame.
Up Next:
RHP Ross Stripling vs. RHP Charlie Morton
Morton allowed four earned runs in 5.1 innings in a May 1 start against Toronto. The Blue Jays have scored the sixth-most runs in the league against right-handed pitchers so far this season.
Mitch Bannon is a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated covering the Toronto Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates.Twitter: @MitchBannon