SEOUL-- A personal four-game winning streak has ended for Ryu Hyun-jin, as the Toronto Blue Jays left-hander took a tough loss against the Seattle Mariners on the road.
Ryu was charged with four earned runs in 6 1/3 innings at T-Mobile Park in Seattle on Saturday (local time) in a 9-3 loss to the Mariners. Ryu fell to 11-6 for the season, and his ERA went up from 3.62 to a season-worst 3.72. He struck out three and walked two.
Seattle had been the last club to beat Ryu. After losing to the Mariners on July 1, Ryu had gone 4-0 over his six subsequent starts, while the Blue Jays had won all six games.
Ryu's final pitching line wasn't a fair indication of how well he pitched in this game. After giving up a two-run home run to Ty France in the first, Ryu only allowed a single over the next five innings and retired 14 straight batters in one stretch.
Ryu left the game with two runners on with one out in the seventh, and both of them came around to score against a shaky bullpen.
France's home run in the opening inning was the first long ball that Ryu allowed since serving up two against the same Mariners on July 1, seven starts ago.
The Blue Jays soon erased that 2-0 deficit. Cleanup Teoscar Hernandez cut the deficit in half with a solo home run in the top second, and then knocked in the tying run with a single in the top third.
Meanwhile, Ryu settled down on the mound and pitched with his trademark efficiency.
Ryu needed just 13 pitches to retire the side in order in the second, and threw only eight pitches for the three-up, three-down third inning.
He struck out France in the 15-pitch fourth inning. The Blue Jays staked Ryu to a 3-2 lead in the top fifth, courtesy of Lourdes Gurriel Jr.'s RBI groundout. Ryu kept the team in front in the bottom fifth, as he got a groundout, a flyout and a strikeout on 11 pitches.
Jake Fraley ended the string of consecutive batters retired by Ryu to lead off the sixth inning, but was erased in a 6-4-3 double play ball off the bat of J.P. Crawford.
But then things fell apart in the seventh.
France got the better of Ryu again to lead off that inning, as he hit a triple off the top of the center field fence.
After getting a groundout, Ryu walked Abraham Toro to put runners at the corners, and his day was done.
Right-hander Trevor Richards came on trying to clean up the mess, but instead surrendered a three-run home run to Luis Torrens. Seattle was now up 5-3, and Jarred Kelenic went back-to-back with a solo blast that gave the Mariners a 6-3 advantage.
In three August starts, Ryu has been charged with 13 earned runs in 17 innings.
On France's triple in the seventh, center fielder George Springer appeared to injure his left leg as he crashed into the wall. Springer grabbed his left ankle immediately and gingerly walked off the field.
Ryu said he hoped Springer's injury wasn't too serious, and added that the break in action as Springer left the game didn't necessarily disrupt his rhythm.
"As far as the pitch count, I was in pretty good shape, and I didn't feel tired at all," said Ryu, who made 75 pitches through six innings. "There's nothing you can do to control a situation like that (Springer's injury)."
Ryu's start came on Liberation Day in South Korea, with his native country celebrating the 76th anniversary of its liberation from Japan's colonial rule. Ryu's counterpart for the Mariners was Japanese left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, creating an intriguing Korea-Japan pitching matchup.
While fans back home may have been intriuged by this matchup -- Kikuchi was pulled after giving up three runs in 4 1/3 innings -- Ryu only saw it as just another regular season game.
"As a starting pitcher, I am only focusing on opposing hitters when I prepare for games. I don't pay attention to who's starting for the other club," Ryu said. "It would have been nice if we'd won the game."
The loss dropped the Blue Jays (62-54) into a tie with the Mariners (63-55) for fourth place in the American League (AL) Wild Card race. The top two Wild Card teams from each league will advance to the postseason. The Oakland Athletics and the Red Sox are currently holding down those two spots in the AL, with the New York Yankees 2.5 games behind the Red Sox. The Blue Jays and the Mariners are 4.5 games back.
Source: Yonhap News Agency