It was a very painful 4th straight loss. Ryu Hyun-jin’s (36) team, the Toronto Blue Jays, lost all four home games to the Texas Rangers, which was considered a watershed for advancing to the fall baseball season. The collapse of the starting lineup was so serious that Ryu Hyun-jin, who seemed to have done his part with a quality start through 6 innings, looked like a fairy when he looked again.
Toronto was defeated 2-9 in the 2023 Major League Baseball (ML) home game against Texas held at the Rogers Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on the 15th (Korean time). With a shocking sweep loss, Toronto remained at 80-67, 11.5 games behind the Baltimore Orioles (91-55), first place in the American League East, and 3rd, 6 games behind the fourth-place Boston Red Sox (74-73). It’s done.
In fact, the Eastern District ranking was virtually guaranteed to be 3rd, so the wild card ranking was important. Even before the start of the series with Texas, Toronto started in second place, one game ahead of the wild card Maginot Line, third place Seattle Mariners, and 1.5 games ahead of fourth place Texas. However, with this 4th straight loss, they lost their positions to both Texas and Seattle and fell to 4th place.
With Toronto remaining with 15 games and Texas and Seattle each with 16 games remaining, the outlook is not bright statistically. Toronto’s probability of advancing to the postseason, which had reached 79.3% just before the four-game home game against Texas, plummeted to 33.9% after a shocking four-game losing streak.
The difficult schedule and opponent’s record drastically reduced Toronto’s chances of advancing to the postseason to less than half. There are 3 games left against the Boston Red Sox (74 wins, 73 losses) with a ‘.500 winning percentage’, 6 games left against the New York Yankees (74 wins, 74 losses), and 6 games left against the ‘No. 1 Wild Card’ Tampa Bay Rays (91 wins, 57 losses). It is expected to be a difficult process. In addition, they are not ahead of their wild card rival Seattle with 3 wins and 3 losses and Texas with 1 win and 6 losses, so they need a clear advantage at the end of 162 games.
The bigger problem is that the team directly felt its limitations through facing rival teams this postseason. Against Texas, Toronto performed poorly throughout the four-game series, scoring 9 points and conceding 35 goals. Ace Kevin Gausman blamed himself in an interview with American media The Athletic, saying, “We were terrible in every way in this series. The pitching staff gave up a lot of points and the hitters didn’t score. That’s why you can’t win against a good team.” did.
It was messed up from the start. In the first game, starting pitcher Chris Bassett suddenly ran toward third base when runner Mitch Garber took a large lead in the top of the second inning with runners on second and third base. At the time, Garber’s move was aimed at Toronto third baseman Cavern Biggio leaving third base empty and moving to the shortstop position due to a defensive shift, but Bassett got caught up in this. Bassett’s check turned into a balk and he allowed runs in vain, and in the end, he was battered with 9 hits (1 home run), 3 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 5 runs in 5⅓ innings. Toronto lost 4-10.
On the other hand, Ryu Hyun-jin played his part with calm pitching throughout the second game against Texas. He drew out 10 batters in a row with a slow fastball with an average speed of only 88.9 miles per hour (approximately 143.1 km), and showed off art pitching that took away the batter’s timing with an ultra-low curve with a minimum speed of 62.5 miles per hour (approximately 100.6 km).
As a result, he pitched 6 innings, allowed 5 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, and 3 runs, and succeeded in his first quality start with the most innings since returning from elbow ligament joint surgery (Tommy John surgery) last year. However, due to insufficient scoring support from the batting line, Toronto lost 3-6, and Ryu Hyun-jin suffered his third loss (3 wins) of the season.안전놀이터
At this time, I never imagined that giving up 3 runs in 6 innings would be the best pitching. Yusei Kikuchi, who appeared as the third starting pitcher, collapsed after two extra-base hits, allowing 5 hits (2 home runs), 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 6 runs in 5 innings. Toronto’s batting lineup was even worse, losing 0-10. And on this day, the last match between the two teams this season, even the highly anticipated ace Gausman showed his worst pitching, allowing 6 hits (2 home runs), 6 walks, 5 strikeouts, and 4 runs in 4⅔ innings, resulting in Toronto losing 2-9.
After a shocking fourth consecutive loss, The Athletic said, “Toronto’s game against Texas was a total disaster, a worst-case scenario, and a colossal failure.” The pitching staff also deserves some blame. Of the four starters in this series, only one was Ryu Hyun-jin. “Only he recorded a quality start,” he said bitterly.
He continued, “Toronto was thoroughly defeated by the Texas team in every aspect. The 37,594 fans gathered that day booed the Toronto team throughout the game, and the home fans have the right to express their displeasure,” he said, conveying the lively local atmosphere. .