TORONTO — Gerrit Cole rightly gets his due as arguably the most dominant starting pitcher in the game today, but Hyun-Jin Ryu is giving the Toronto Blue Jays a pretty good answer to the New York Yankees ace.
The left-hander followed a dominant performance by Cole a night earlier with a gem of his own Tuesday, contrasting the right-hander’s display of overwhelming power by changing speeds and mixing four pitches over 6.2 brilliant innings in a 7-3 victory.
Ryu’s work was mastery, controlling bat speed and disrupting timing by throwing his cutter (25), changeup (21) and fastball (21) almost equally while also dropping in 12 curveballs to keep the Yankees guessing all night. When they weren’t muttering under the breaths at the latest high 80’s cutter fouled off harmlessly if not missed entirely, they were chirping at home-plate umpire Erich Bacchus’s strike zone, which to be fair was generous.
Hyun-Jin Ryu’s called strikes against the Yankess. Courtesy: Baseball Savant.
Credit Ryu for being smart enough to take advantage of that extra room along with the opposition frustrations, slightly altering the mix he used against the Yankees on opening day, when the changeup was his most used pitch at 33, followed by the cutter (26), fastball (25) and curveball (7).
“I did pretty much the same prep as last time and the way that it plays out during the game, I see which of my pitches work for me,” Ryu said through interpreter J.S. Park. “Today, the velocity was there for me so I decided to use that more than before.”
The Blue Jays have won all four of his starts against the Yankees since he joined them two winters ago — Cole has won three of four versus Toronto since signing with New York — getting a steady counterpunch to help equalize things between the American League East rivals.
“The confidence has always been there since the beginning of the season, and everything is going according to how I prepared for the season,” said Ryu. “Even against the Yankees with such heavy right-handed hitters, I still feel pretty good going in with my confidence up.”
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That confidence extends league-wide, as he’s now allowed two earned runs or less in 12 of his past 13 outings, dating back to last season. The one blip was a five-inning, five-run slog last Sept. 7 against the Yankees, which the Blue Jays won 12-7.
“Huge,” Montoyo said of the counterbalance his ace provides, “because that’s what the Yankees get with Cole. If you’re on a losing streak or something, you feel like, OK, he’s going to give you a chance today. That’s what Cole does for that team and that’s what Ryu does for us. When he takes the mound, we know we have a good chance to win the game.”
They provided him with more than enough offence once again Tuesday, jumping Jameson Taillon, who didn’t make it out of the fourth.
Josh Palacios, staring at increased opportunity after Teoscar Hernandez’s tested positive for COVID-19 shot a ball up the middle in the second for a two-run single that opened the scoring.
Randal Grichuk’s sacrifice fly in the third made it 3-0, while Marcus Semien’s fourth homer of the season and consecutive doubles by Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., tacked on two more in the fifth. Ryu, in contrast, had faced the minimum to that point.
“I’ve faced (Ryu) in the past, it’s not a fun at-bat,” said Semien. “He tops out about 91-92, but that fastball plays like 97 when he’s got all the other pitches working for strikes. He’s faced this Yankees lineup a couple of times and done great. That’s going to be big for us this year.
Rowdy Tellez, who ended an 0-for-21 to open the season with a single off Cole on Monday, clubbed his first homer of the season in the sixth.
The Yankees got on the board in the seventh when Rougned Odor’s RBI groundout brought home an unearned run against Ryu, while Giancarlo Stanton’s two-run single off Jordan Romano in the eighth came after Clint Frazier’s 106.9 m.p.h., drive glanced off David Phelps’ back, forcing the right-hander from the game.
Montoyo said the reliever suffered a contusion but had no further updates.
The Yankees ran themselves out of the inning when Gary Sanchez strayed too far from first on a wild pitch and Danny Jansen relayed the ball to Guerrero, who fired to Bichette for the third out of the inning. Julian Merryweather, who unleashed the pitch, was supposed to pitch the ninth too but had to be pulled with what Montoyo called left hip irritation.
Bichette’s sacrifice fly in the bottom half made it 7-3.
That helped ensure that a low-stress night didn’t get any more interesting than it needed to be. The Blue Jays gave Ryu an extra day of rest and he gave them what he always does, a game under control that, more often than not, put a win within their grasp.
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