Ryu carves Brewers

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin throws in the bottom of the second inning against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Wednesday. / AFP-Yonhap

Dodgers lefty continues strong rookie season with 5th win

By Jung Min-ho

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin earned his fifth major league win against the Milwaukee Brewers 9-2 Wednesday after pitching a season-high 7 1/3 innings.

At Miller Park in Milwaukee, the 26-year-old gave up two runs and six hits. Other than that, Ryu, who is quickly becoming the team’s most reliable pitcher, held the batters tight. For his past seven appearances out of 10, the lefty allowed two earned runs or less on average. Ryu also has his earned-run-average (ERA) down to 3.30 from 3.42.

Before the game, Ryu’s longest stint was against the New York Mets on April 26.

“I’m very satisfied with the result,” Ryu told reporters. “The team gave me the lead so the game became comfortable.”

Ryu’s 70 pitches out of 108 hit the strike zone, and he struck out four. His fastest ball reached 148-kilometers per hour.

“I could manage to play for long because the number of pitches was low,” Ryu said. “I had a good sleep, and the nice weather also helped.”

When asked if he would expect to receive the Most Valuable Player award at the end of this season, Ryu said “No,” but said he would nonetheless expect a shootout as well as double-digit wins.

The Dodgers got off to a quality start when Carl Crawford singled. Crawford and Scott Van Slyke had two runs each and Ramon Hernandez hit a home run to help Ryu’s win.

Ryu’s next outing will likely be against the Los Angeles Angels on May 29.