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Ryu Hyun-jin rejoins Dodgers’ starting pitcher rotation

Ryu Hyun-jin rejoins Dodgers’ starting pitcher rotation

Posted March. 29, 2017 07:12,   

Updated March. 29, 2017 07:22

한국어
After watching Ryu Hyun-jin’s fourth pitching in an exhibition game on Tuesday, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said, “Ryu has thrown the ball well, built up enough. We feel confident going forward that he’ll be one of our five (starting pitchers). He’s given us no reason not to be.”

Left-hander Ryu, who served a pillar of the team’s starting pitchers by securing 14 wins in two consecutive seasons in 2013 and 2014, had to concentrate on rehabilitation due to injuries for two years from 2015 to 2016. He underwent surgeries of a shoulder in 2015 and an elbow last year. Some critics predicted that Ryu stood a low chance to recover from the injury discovered in 2015 in his shoulder, which is the most sensitive part of a pitcher’ body, but he has overcome all the difficulties.

In his pitching in the last exhibition game against the Chicago White Sox he took the mound ahead of the opening of the regular season that happened at Glendale Camelback Ranch in Arizona on the day, Ryu demonstrated his qualification as a starting pitcher. He started the game and gave five hits including two homers and three runs during the five innings. He became the losing pitcher since the Dodgers lost the game 2-5, but he nonetheless demonstrated that he can continue pitching for at least five innings as a starter, which is a great outcome.

Ryu threw 77 pitches during the five innings on the day. Both the numbers of innings and pitches are the most in a game he has played this season. He has increased the number of innings by one every exhibition game, and displayed stable pitching in all of them. In the exhibition games, he recorded four earned runs during 14 innings he pitched in the four exhibition games to post an ERA of 2.57.



Heon-Jae Lee uni@donga.com