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By Yoon Chul
Ryu Hyun-jin of the Hanwha Eagles appears to be finding the form that has seen him overwhelm teams but new star Park Hyun-joon of the LG Twins is losing his sparkle.
In his sixth victory for the season, Ryu allowed three runs and five hits with 11 strikeouts against the Kia Tigers in a 12-3 win, Tuesday. Meanwhile, Park surrendered five runs with six hits in 3 2/3 innings against the Samsung Lions in a 7-3 defeat.
“From now I will just concentrate on pitching,” Ryu said before the game. Against the Tigers, Ryu’s fastball was over 150 kilometers per hour and his 11 strikeouts were his highest this season.
“I felt many things after the defeat against the Lotte Giants. At that time my pitching was like batting. From now I will pitch to my strength from the beginning of the game not to give up runs,” Ryu said.
The 24-year-old lefty inning-eater can throw down powerful fastballs. But another of his weapons is dominating the game, controlling the speed which is effective to reduce the number of pitches. For that reason he often used breaking balls, slider and change-ups, which can result in grounders or flyballs. But this can also provide the batters with scoring opportunities.
On June 10, Ryu looked disorganized on the mound amid heavy rain and conceded four runs in two innings.
He came back after just a three-day break, to pitch almost perfectly, bar one poorly-controlled ball, which allowed Kia a three-run homer.
Meanwhile, Park, the leader in most wins with eight victories, has faltered of late.
In three of his last four outings he has allowed over four runs and been retired before the sixth inning.
The reason for his slump seems to be due to lack of stamina.
The 24-year-old pitcher threw a combined 74 2/3 innings for the previous two years but as part of the starting rotation for the first time Park has already been on the mound for 84 2/3 innings this season.
His trademark pitches are a fastball with severe movement and fork ball, which drops just in front of the home plate.
But neither of them are working as they have in the past.
To make matters worse for Park, summer is coming. In order to endure the hot weather, the starter needs to save his energy but Twins manager Park Jong-hoon can’t afford to give the team’s young ace a rest.
The Twins hope to finish the regular season in the top four and make the playoffs for the first time since 2002. They currently share third with the Tigers as of Tuesday in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) standings.
LG have lost lefty ace Bong Jung-keun for the entire season due to an elbow injury so Park needs to share the rotation with import starters Benjamin Jukich and Radhames Liz. With the Korean professional baseball league about halfway through the season the fans are looking to see whether the two pitchers’ fortunes will continue along different paths.
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