Blue Jays' Ryu Hyun-jin blanks Yankees for 13th win of season

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Sept. 7 (Yonhap) -- Toronto Blue Jays' starter Ryu Hyun-jin has picked up his 13th win of the season in his first September start, shutting down the New York Yankees to put a disappointing month of August behind him.

Ryu pitched six shutout innings and held the Yankees to just three singles in an 8-0 victory at Yankee Stadium in New York on Monday (local time).

The South Korean left-hander improved to 13-8 for the year, lowering his ERA from 3.92 to 3.77. Ryu is now alone in second place among American League pitchers in wins, one behind the Yankees right-hander Gerrit Cole.

Ryu struck out six and walked none. It was Ryu's fourth scoreless start and second outing in which he gave up zero runs and zero walks.

The win extended the Blue Jays' winning streak to five games, keeping them in the race for a Wild Card. At 74-62, the Blue Jays were 3.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox for the second Wild Card berth, before the conclusion of the Red Sox's game against the Tampa Bay Rays.

Ryu was coming off his worst month of the season. He went 2-3 in six starts in August with a 6.21 ERA, by far the highest mark in any month of 2021. He held opponents to 17 runs in 58 1/3 innings over his first 10 starts of the season. But in August, Ryu was touched up for 23 earned runs in 33 1/3 innings.

Against the Yankees, Ryu had a 2-0 lead before he even took the mound, thanks to back-to-back solo home runs by Marcus Semien and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in the top of the first inning

Ryu then worked a clean bottom of the first with two groundouts sandwiching a strikeout of Joey Gallo. In the second, Ryu induced a flyout, a lineout and a groundout, with right fielder Teoscar Hernandez making a fine running catch for the second out of the inning to rob Anthony Rizzo of a hit.

The Yankees got their first hit off Ryu in the third inning, a one-out single by Brett Gardner, but Ryu came out of that inning unscathed by getting two straight groundouts.

The bottom of the fourth inning featured two more strikeouts.

The teams continued to trade zeroes. Ryu gave up a leadoff single to Rizzo in the bottom fifth but then retired the next three batters. He then erased Gio Urshela's single that opened the sixth inning with a double play ball off the bat of DJ LeMahieu.

Ryu struck out Gall for the third time to end the sixth inning, and that was the end of his efficient day after 80 pitches.

Relievers Trevor Richards, Tim Mayza and Adam Cimber combined for three shutout innings for the Blue Jays' second consecutive 8-0 win.

The Blue Jays added an insurance run in the top seventh on a single by Lourdes Gurriel Jr., and then erupted for five runs in the ninth inning to seal the win. Hernandez opened that inning with a solo blast, and then Semien smacked a grand slam to put the game out of New York's reach.

Ryu, typically known for his changeups, relied mostly on four-seam fastballs and cutters -- a pitch Ryu himself identified as sliders -- to keep the Yankees at bay. He threw 30 fastballs and 22 cutters, while mixing in 21 changeups and seven curveballs. Of his first 30 pitches, 24 were either four-seam fastballs or cutters.

Increased velocity on all of his pitches also helped. Ryu touched 93.9 miles per hour (mph) with his four-seamer and averaged 91.8 mph on that pitch, a full 2 mph faster than his season average. Even his changeup came in 2.7 mph faster than average for the season at 82.3 mph.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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