ERA 8.36 What is the biggest reason for the slump in baseball’s life
“Korean Monster” Ryu Hyun-jin (37, Hanwha Eagles) is experiencing the biggest slump in his baseball career. What caused this.
Ryu, considered one of the greatest pitchers in Korean baseball history, has been adapting himself to the KBO league in the early 2024 season. With an 8.36 ERA in three games as of now, Ryu has lost only two games without a win.
More than anything else, Ryu had to experience a shocking situation in which he was the lowest in the ERA before Robert Duggar (13 earned runs) collapsed on Thursday with 14 runs in three innings, which is the tie for the most runs ever recorded in the league, and Wes Benjamin (KT), who allowed 11 runs in his second appearance, entered the league after completing the stipulated innings on Sunday. And the fans’ stance on the situation is even more unbelievable.
Even when Ryu gave six hits, three strikeouts and five runs (two earned) in 3.2 innings in his debut game against LG on April 23, his unstable defense and burden of returning to the team were cited as the reasons for his struggle. In his second game against KT on April 29, Ryu showed good pitching by allowing eight hits, nine strikeouts and two runs in six innings, further encouraging the public that Ryu would gradually improve. However, as Ryu collapsed by allowing nine hits, two walks, two strikeouts and nine runs in 4.1 innings in the game against Kiwoom at Gocheok Dome on May 5, everything became questionable.
Most of all, not only the players themselves but also baseball fans have never experienced such consecutive hits in a game since his debut in Korea and the U.S. That made the team all the more unfamiliar to them all the more embarrassing. The nine runs that Ryu gave was the most in a game, the previous record was eight runs (two innings) against the Samsung Lions in Daejeon on August 18, 2012. 토토사이트넷
While Ryu allowed seven hits in the fifth inning of Saturday’s game alone, Kiwoom hitters were able to hit the ball that came into the S zone as if they had been waiting for the ball count fast. The scene where Ryu himself smiled broadly could even be caught on camera.
Hanwha manager Choi Won-ho said at the Gocheok Dome on Tuesday that “there were many balls that rushed to the S zone” as the reason for the team’s lackluster performance. “I was hit hard because there were a lot of balls (by Ryu Hyun-jin on the 5th). I was also a little late in preparing for replacement, so I think the timing of replacement was also late,” Choi Won-ho said.
What’s more regrettable about Ryu’s performance in the past three games is that he has shown weakness in all situations in which he lost points. For this reason, he has shown very weak statistics in terms of scoring ability so far. With no runners on the field, Ryu’s batting average stands at 0.214, while his batting average will soar to 0.472 when there are no runners on the field.
Notably, Ryu allowed hits in both bases loaded and situations with runners on first and third bases, and was very weak as he recorded seven hits in seven at-bats for runners on first and second and third bases. As a result, the overall score point-scoring ratio reached 0.722, including the 0.444 hit point-scoring ratio for runners on first and second bases. It is regrettable that he only had two strikeouts in his scoring position.
Of course, it is a disappointing point in the statistics with only three games. Choi also said, “I think we can get enough data because we had two out of three games,” but added, “I think there is room for improvement when it comes to balls that are crowded out. I talked about that with the pitching coach and the battery coach at the meeting. They also talked to Ryu and talked about ways to improve them in the future.”
He also believed that his too aggressive approach might have caused him to get angry. Analysts say that the strategy was read. “The first and second pitches that I threw to catch the strike matched well. As I entered the game so honestly, I think I was hit hard in the first and second pitches,” Choi said. “I think it will be okay if I make changes to those areas as well.”
“If I had a lot of pitches up to the fourth inning, I would have prepared in advance,” Choi said. “When I looked at the number of pitches I pitched until the fourth inning, I thought I could go to the sixth inning easily,” he said. “After the fifth inning, I had a cleaning time, so I couldn’t let the bullpen pitchers warm up. Lee Tae-yang was about to go up, but it takes time to warm up. We couldn’t let Kim Ki-joong, the same left-hander, go, and Kim Seo-hyun was the only pitcher to go up.”
“As a result, the timing of the replacement was late, too. There was a part where I missed the timing of the replacement on the bench,” he added.
When asked if Ryu’s belated preparation for the season might affect his performance, Choi said, “It doesn’t seem to be much different from the schedule that Ryu had in the U.S. It is said that he threw one or two fewer practice matches,” adding that it doesn’t have a significant impact.
However, while starting the spring camp the same as in previous years, the early opening of the season may have an impact on Ryu Hyun-jin’s struggle at the beginning of the season.
“All starting pitchers including Ryu Hyun-jin are throwing 100 pitches, but we have not fully adapted to the game. We have to throw about five to six games since the opening of the season to say that the number of players has risen 100 percent,” Choi said. “Everyone is still in the stage of adaptation. All pitchers have to go through the stage of adaptation by the third week of April.”
Another peculiarity of Ryu’s record is that he increases the number of pitches he throws and his batting average in the fifth inning increases to 0.692 and his batting average in the sixth inning to 0.571. In terms of the number of pitches he throws, he tends to be hit hard when he throws more than 70 pitches. It seems that Ryu is not fully recovered yet, and as the number of pitches he throws increases, his strength declines, and his control is also on shaky ground.
However, coach Choi said, “Unfortunately, that happened, but if Molly improves the ball, that part (weakness in the second half) will be fine,” adding, “It can be seen as a problem that the ball power has significantly decreased due to the increase in the number of pitches, but the ball power has not decreased. Coincidentally, I was hit hard in the second game due to the rapid increase in the number of pitches, and I can improve that point,” drawing a firm line on the criticism that the ball power is falling in the second half of the game.
The game on the 5th was not easy to replace pitchers in terms of ace pitching, bullpen situation, and game flow.