Dodgers: Hyun-Jin Ryu looks to hold off deGrom in Cy Young race

The Dodgers will send Hyun-Jin Ryu out to the mound tonight in a battle of NL Cy Young candidates.  The Mets will start Jacob deGrom who has a Cy Young case of his own.

Tonight the biggest stage won’t be Broadway, it will be Citi Field as the Dodgers and Mets will square off and throw their National League Cy Young candidates against one another.  The NL race is down to four candidates, with Mike Soroka and Max Scherzer being two other worthy candidates.  But tonight it will be about Ryu and deGrom.

Ryu has regressed in the second half of the season but he still leads the National League with an ERA of 2.45.  Jacob deGrom is not far behind and having an excellent season with an ERA of 2.70.  Jacob does have a better FIP than Ryu and enters tonight’s start with a FIP of 2.84.  Ryu’s FIP is a bit higher at 3.18.  Not surprising considering Ryu relies on soft contact and deGrom is a strikeout power pitcher.

That is the biggest difference between the two aces.  Jacob deGrom has a strikeout rate of 11.4 K/9IP while Hyun-Jin Ryu’s rate is a much more pedestrian 7.9 K/9IP.  Despite deGrom being a strikeout pitcher, both pitchers have impeccable control with a strikeout to walk ratio better than 5:1.

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Both pitchers are also great at inducing soft contact with Ryu averaging 85.2 MPH exit velocity and deGrom allowing an average exit velocity of 86.2 MPH.  So despite different pitcher profiles, both Ryu and deGrom have pinpoint control and are great and getting the opposition to put the ball in play at a soft contact rate.  A critical skill at a time when baseballs are “juiced” and home run numbers being put up at staggering rates.

The one thing that Jacob deGrom has over Hyun-Jin Ryu is the gaudy strikeout numbers which can sway voters in the end.  deGrom has also pitched much better going into the final stretch of the season.  In the second half, Jacob has an ERA of 1.85 and has held the opposition to a .193 average.  Ryu has been shaky posting an ERA of 3.93 since the break and allowing an average of .278.

Hyun-Jin has struggled in August and September pitching to an ERA over six in both months.  He will likely make two the three more starts in the regular season after tonight’s outing, so he still has time to get back to form and have a strong finish.  In a Cy Young race so close, the candidate who finishes the strongest could edge out the competition.

For the Dodgers’ sake, they are less concerned about Ryu winning the National League Cy Young award and more concerned about getting him right with two weeks left in the season.  Hopefully the extra rest did Ryu well and he will come back and pitch a gem against the Mets on Saturday evening.