The Toronto Blue Jays’ “Korean Monster,” Hyun-jin Ryu (36-photo), will look for his third win of the season against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Hyun-jin Ryu is scheduled to start against the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 27 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Ryu, who has won two straight games with five innings of no-hit ball in his last two outings, is 2-1 with a 1.89 ERA in his last four starts. His strikeouts per nine innings is a bit low at 7.11 with 15 walks in 19 innings, but his home runs per nine innings is encouraging at 0.47. His walks per inning allowed (WHIP) is also good at 1.05, and his batting average is just 0.214.
In his first game back, he was averaging just under 90 mph on his fastball, and his changeup was being driven up the middle, but as he’s gotten better, he’s been able to find the edge of the strike zone with his trademark sharpness. His changeup is also dropping low to the outside of the right-handed batter’s zone to induce false swings, and he has a 100-kilometer-per-hour slow curveball that takes away batters’ timing.
Local media have also been raving about Ryu, who has had three surgeries during his career but has been performing well enough to dispel any concerns.
Cleveland is a team he has faced once since returning from injury. In his last start against Cleveland on Aug. 8, Ryu pitched a four-inning no-hitter, but was struck in the right knee by an Oscar Gonzalez hit while trying to get the final out. Fortunately, he was diagnosed with a simple bruise and is expected to return to the starting rotation.
Cleveland’s offense ranks near the bottom of MLB. The team is batting .249 through 23 games, 27th overall. It’s already a weak lineup, and it got even weaker after the trade deadline, when the team shipped off former top hitters Josh Bell (Miami Marlins) and Ahmed Rosario (Los Angeles Dodgers) to other teams 스포츠토토.
Add to that the loss of Josh Naylor (.306 with 15 homers and 79 RBIs), who led the offense alongside Jose Ramirez (.280 with 18 homers and 67 RBIs) with a side injury. The trades and injuries to key hitters have left Cleveland with 91 team home runs, one of only 30 teams in MLB to fail to hit 100. Ramirez, whose 0.921 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) against lefties is nearly a full run better than his season mark (0.828), could have his first quality start (six or more innings and three or fewer earned runs) since returning.