Dodgers: Hyun-Jin Ryu Looking For Answers After Another Poor Outing

Hyun-Jin Ryu took his next turn in the starting rotation on Thursday — even after the Dodgers said he would likely skip a start — and he tossed his third straight bad outing. On the evening, Ryu allowed 7 earned runs in 4.2 innings pitched.

FINAL: D-backs 11, #Dodgers 5

— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) August 30, 2019

It made 2 consecutive outings where the left hander allowed 7 runs. In the outing before last, he allowed 4 runs in Atlanta and now the Dodgers and Ryu find themselves looking for answers.

LA manager Dave Roberts offered his thoughts after the game.

There was certainly bad luck in there, but I think that overall it’s one of those where he’s just off. I don’t know if it’s delivery — I understand that it’s three in a row that he hasn’t thrown the way he’s thrown all year, but it’s something for us…it’s not too far off.

The ace owns an ugly 11.05 ERA over his last 14.2 innings pitched with a surprising .368 average against, but still a strong 16-3 K/BB. This brings his season ERA up to 2.35, and his record to 12-5 in 25 starts. He hasn’t made this many starts or pitched this many innings since 2014, so the questions about fatigue will continue to creep up.

He only made 19 starts between the 2018 regular and postseason while totaling 101.2 innings pitched. In 2019, he’s now tossed 157.1 innings pitched.

Roberts feels that with Hyun-Jin’s velocity being “still there,” and noted that there hasn’t been a drop off in “stuff” but more in command.

While it’s less important than the overall goal of winning a championship, this recent streak of poor outings brings the field a bit closer to Ryu in terms of the NL Cy Young award race. While he’s long been viewed as the favorite to run away with the award, a healthy Max Scherzer in Washington is in the hunt to add his 4th honor.

Dave Roberts says that the plan is for Ryu to make his next start where we hope he can get back on track for the stretch run.

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