TORONTO — Hyun Jin Ryu signed his $80-million, four-year deal with the Toronto Blue Jays on Dec. 27, 2019 and after 32 starts and 13 home outings, he finally toed the Rogers Centre rubber and delivered a strong debut that was a long time coming.
The ace left-hander was in control throughout his seven innings of work in a 7-2 victory over Cleveland, the type of leverage-free contest envisioned as a regularity on idyllic Toronto summer nights when he signed on the dotted line.
Backed by first-inning home runs from George Springer and Teoscar Hernandez, and some well-executed situational hitting later in the game that padded the early margin, Ryu led the Blue Jays to their fourth victory in five outings since returning home before a crowd of 14,270.
“It meant a lot for me,” he said through interpreter J.S. Park. “The atmosphere right now just being back in Toronto is really good. Just the fact that we can still play in front of our actual Toronto home fans just means a lot to us and amplifies everything that we do here.”
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Among the many peculiarities caused by the club’s pandemic displacement is that Jose Berrios, acquired Friday in a trade-deadline blockbuster, pitched at the dome as a member of the Blue Jays before Ryu did.
No matter, Ryu made sure it was worth the wait, allowing just two runs on seven hits with eight strikeouts in his sixth start of seven innings this season, extending his recent rebound after hitting a rut just before the all-star break.
Fuelling the charge has been a slight uptick in velocity — his four-seamer sat at 90.6 m.p.h., exactly one m.p.h. above his season average, and touched 93.6 — while his changeup continues to round back into form, generating three whiffs, two called strikes, three fouls and four outs.
Also firmer was a cutter he used a game-high 32 times, throwing it at an average of 87.7 m.p.h., two m.p.h. above his season average, while his curveball led to five whiffs on nine swings.
“I don’t think it’s just my changeup and my cutter,” said Ryu. “The curveball and even my fastball, I was able to put away a lot of guys today with those pitches, especially with all my pitches working for me the last outings and even today, where I could punch out guys and get them out at an earlier pace. That led to a good result today.”
The 99 pitches were the most he’d thrown since a 100-pitch start June 20 at Baltimore, all of which should set him up well for his next outing in Sunday’s series finale against the Boston Red Sox.
The Blue Jays are loaded up for that series, with Alek Manoah slated to pitch the opener Friday and Berrios and Robbie Ray handling the duties in Saturday’s doubleheader, the third ever at the dome and first since April 17, 2018, the day after an ice chunk fell from the CN Tower and punctured a hole in the roof.
That scenario sets up Steven Matz and Ross Stripling to pitch in next Tuesday’s doubleheader at Anaheim, at which point the Blue Jays will decide whether to return to a five-man rotation.
“The most important thing for us as a team is to make sure that we have a winning mind and try to compete out there,” said Ryu, “and make sure that we try to come out every game on the winning end.”
In the interim, they’ll need to offence to keep chewing up pitchers the way they did to Zach Plesac. Springer opened things up with his 41st career leadoff homer and after Bo Bichette singled with two outs, Hernandez fouled off three two-strike pitches and took a slider in the dirt before shooting a fastball on the outer edge over the wall in right.
He’s had good success hitting the ball to the right side this season, a product of his work over the past three seasons to become a more complete hitter, and the homer was an example of his maturation.
“He was throwing me a lot of breaking pitches at the beginning of the at-bat,” said Hernandez. “I was trying to get one fastball in the zone that I can drive the other way, because I think they were trying to go away with me. That’s what they did (Monday) and I made that adjustment. He left one in the strike zone and I put a good swing on it.”
Breyvic Valera, who’ll see more action with Cavan Biggio on the injured list due to what the club called mid-back tightness, delivered a run-scoring groundout in the bottom of the fourth after Cleveland scratched out a run in the top half. The Blue Jays pushed the lead out in the fifth on a Bichette sacrifice fly and a Hernandez RBI single while Springer added a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Corey Dickerson, activated from the IL to take Biggio’s spot on the roster, went 0-for-4 in his Blue Jays debut but put the ball in play in all four at-bats. His left-handed bat will be inserted into the outfield mix, likely starting against tougher right-handers and coming off the bench at other times as the Blue Jays try to optimize platoon advantages with him and others.
Dickerson was at DH in this one, but manager Charlie Montoyo made several late-game defensive changes to put out his best defence, something he plans to do more often. Randal Grichuk came in for Lourdes Gurriel Jr., moving Hernandez from left to right, while Santiago Espinal replaced Valera at third.
“We did everything right,” said Montoyo. “It’s one of those games that as a manager you’re happy because the defence was good, the execution at the plate was really good and of course the pitching was outstanding.”
Indeed it was, and nearly 20 months after Ryu joined the Blue Jays, he started a game under an open roof and his first turn at Rogers Centre played out just the way the team hoped it would.
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