Ryu picks up fourth win of season, with 7 shutout innings

In Street Fighter, a fighting video game, main protagonist Ryu shoots fireballs. Fans compared “Blue Monster” Ryu Hyun-jin’s pitching to the fireballs by the game character as he overpowered Red Sox hitters, one of the strongest in Major League Baseball (MLB), on Tuesday.

At a home game against the Boston Red Sox played at TD Ballpark in Florida, Ryu threw seven shutout innings, striking out seven. The Red Sox boasted a team OPS of 0.772, the highest among 30 MLB clubs, until the previous day, but, Red Sox hitters failed to register a single point against Ryu on Tuesday, having only four hits.

It was Ryu’s third time to throw seven innings this season but it was the first time he had a shutout. His ERA dropped from 2.95 to 2.51. Ryu was also very efficient in pitching, having only 100 pitches (an average of 14.3 pitches per inning) at Tuesday’s game.

The Blue Jays hitters also helped Ryu. Scoring six points when Ryu was still on mound, the Blue Jays had a two-run home run by Randal Grichuk in the eighth inning. With the team’s 8-0 victory, Ryu picked up his fourth win of the season and won three straight games after returning from the injury list (IL).

Meanwhile, Ryu broke the jinx of losing against the Red Sox, which he had recorded two losses without a win with an ERA of 4.24 in three starts. On April 21, he registered a loss, allowing four runs in five innings. “I was able to throw all four types of pitchesㅡ fastball, curveball, cutter, and changeupㅡthe way I intended them to be,” Ryu said.


Kyu-In Hwang kini@donga.com