“I’m just hoping it’s not a fracture or something, because it really hurts.”
These are the words of infielder Cavan Biggio (28), a teammate of Toronto Blue Jays veteran left-hander Hyun-jin Ryu (36). Ryu started the game against the Cleveland Guardians on Monday (Aug. 8) at Progressive Field in Cleveland, Ohio (U.S.), and pitched four scoreless innings of 52 pitches with one hit, one walk and two strikeouts before the injury took him off the mound. He was hit on the inside of his right knee by a hard-hit ball from Oscar Gonzalez with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Immediately after the injury, the team announced a “right knee contusion.”
With a front-row seat, second baseman Biggio could only pray that Ryu would be okay. Gonzalez’s fastball reached 97.7 miles per hour (157.2 kilometers per hour). A bad hit could have resulted in a fracture, something Biggio didn’t want to think about.
“Earlier this season, Alec Manoa (starting pitcher) took a similar hit to his knee, and he’s been struggling all season,” Biggio told U.S. media after the game. (The pain) is unimaginable. Even in the batter’s box, getting hit by a 75-mile-per-hour (about 121 kilometers per hour) ball really hurts. I don’t know how hard he was hit, but it looked like it was really hard to me,” Ryu said of the injury.
Toronto manager John Schneider noted how Ryu moved immediately after being hit. Ryu chased the ball as if nothing had happened, fielded it, ran to first base, and threw it away for a grounder. After confirming that he had gotten the final out of the fourth inning, Ryu collapsed to the ground clutching his bruise. He was unable to get up for a while and rolled around holding the injury in excruciating pain.
“It was unbelievable what he did right after he took that hard hit to the knee,” Schneider said. He was impressed that Ryu, who could barely walk immediately after the hit, was able to finish his defense with all his might. If Ryu had stayed down and made it to the plate, Toronto would have been forced to make a mound change with runners on first and second and could have lost the lead and seen their three-game winning streak snapped. The Jays were able to keep the game close after Ryu was sent down and hold on for a 3-1 victory in the eighth inning on Biggio’s game-winning two-run shot to extend their winning streak to four games.
“Unbelievable” is a word Schneider would use again, especially after seeing the bruising and swelling around Ryu’s knee. “We used to joke about Ryu’s thick calves, and now he has two on his right leg,” Schneider said, describing the swelling. “He walked a little bit better after he came into the clubhouse, and up until that point, he was pitching his best stuff on the mound. It was the same Ryu we saw a couple years ago.”
As a precaution, Ryu underwent X-rays. According to MLB.com, “Ryu’s next scheduled start is the final game of the series at home against the Chicago Cubs on April 14. The schedule will likely be updated after the results of the X-ray on Sept. 9,” MLB.com reported.메이저놀이터
Schneider said, “We’ll know the results tomorrow (Sept. 9). I hope it’s good. He’s not scheduled for an MRI, just a precautionary X-ray,” Schneider said, hoping for good news.