Hyun-Jin Ryu flirts with a non-hitter against the nationals

LOS ANGELES – Hyun-Jin Ryu nearly went on a draw Sunday and the media asked Dodgers coach Rick Honeycutt how the southpaw had become so good recently. Honeycutt smiles and laughs, knowing we're not talking about this overnight sensation.
This is the seventh season of Ryu with the Dodgers

LOS ANGELES – Hyun-Jin Ryu He nearly pitched a non-hitter Sunday and the media asked Dodgers coach Rick Honeycutt how the southpaw had become so good so recently. Honeycutt smiles and laughs, knowing we're not talking about this overnight sensation.

Ryu is in his seventh season with the Dodgers after seven professional years in Korea. It is only now that he is likely to play his first MLB All-Star game as he has a real elite year, highlighted by Sunday's 6-0 win over the Nationals. he lost the draw in a double of Gerardo Parra with a withdrawal in the eighth inning.

• The score of the box

Honeycutt recounted Ryu's milestones with the Dodgers, since adding a slider in his second season and a cutter last year, rebounding after two years of recovery from a major shoulder surgery.

"This is just the continuation of what we saw last year," Honeycutt said of Ryu's 2018 season, during which he spent three months on the wounded list. with an injury to the groin. "Hyun-Jin does his homework, he's doing extremely well. He knows where he will go. He never tries to do the same thing with the same guy. He has so many weapons to keep them away. "

Honeycutt left out Ryu's first spring training, while the southpaw was so fit that he could not keep up with the other pitchers. Now that Ryu has a scoreline of 24 scoreless innings, the other pitchers have trouble following him, at least in the standings.

Following his White game of the Braves Tuesday night with eight scoreless innings of a one-shot ball against the Nationals, Ryu has a 5-1 record with a 1.72 ERA and 0.73 WHIP. He took out nine and walked a walk, giving him a whopping 54 withdrawals on catches and three steps only. Since April 10, 2018, he has a record of 12-4 with a batting average of 1.71 and 0.205.

"He did not throw a lot of fastballs," said his former teammate Brian Dozier, whose victory in the fourth was Ryu's third permit this season and the first that he had allowed to 27. sleeves. "The only time I saw a fastball, it was with two shots, and I think it put the players in balance on a fastball.He really did good job. "

At Dodger Stadium, Ryu is even better, 7-0 with a time of 0.90. The march towards Dozier – which, according to Ryu, bored him more than the doubling of Parra – was his first at home since August 26, 2018.

"Watching him work as a technician was a masterful experience," said manager Dave Roberts. "All he wanted to do, the way you write to attack a hitter and miss bats, he did."

Ryu made 116 shots and Roberts – who eliminated Ross Stripling, Rich Hill and Walker Buehler from the attack after the sixth inning – said he "was hoping for an efficient eighth to send him back for the ninth" otherwise. for the double of Parra.

"If I had not dropped that shot in the eighth inning, I would have probably wanted to come out for the ninth," said Ryu. "I felt good. But in giving up this shot, I thought it was better to give the ball to the next one. "

The next was Kenley Jansen, who worked a 1-2-3 ninth.

It was right-wing player Cody Bellinger who turned the opposing player's single single, against hitter Stephen Strasburg, into an incredible 9-3 with a goal in the bottom of the sixth.

Ryu said he was not really disappointed to finally lose the non-hitter.

"If you go that far in a game without a hit, I congratulated myself for doing what a pitcher should do," he said. "It's not really a disappointment, but it's not like I do not feel anything."