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Ex-MLB All-Star Ryu Hyun-jin to start crucial KBO postseason game

Published: 20 Oct. 2025, 12:07

Hanwha Eagles pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin delivers in the top of the first inning during a game against the LG Twins at Hanwha Life Eagles Park in Daejeon on Sept. 26. [NEWS1]

Hanwha Eagles left-hander Ryu Hyun-jin will make his first Korean postseason start in 18 years this week, and it will be a pivotal game for his team coming off a dispiriting loss at home.

Ryu will start Game 3 of the second round in the KBO postseason against the Samsung Lions at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in the southeastern city of Daegu.

The best-of-five series is knotted at 1-1. The Eagles took the opener 9-8 on Saturday but dropped the second game 7-3 the following day.

In those two games, the Eagles' top two starters, Cody Ponce and Ryan Weiss, both got knocked around hard. They gave up a combined 11 runs on 16 hits in 10 innings, far from what had been expected from the KBO's best one-two rotation punch in the regular season.

Ryu will now try to cool off those hot Lions bats and put his team a win away from reaching their first Korean Series since 2006, his rookie season.

Ryu, 38, last pitched in a KBO postseason game in 2007. The Eagles missed the playoffs from 2008 to 2012, and Ryu left for Major League Baseball before the 2013 campaign. The National League Cy Young Award runner-up in 2019, Ryu returned home in 2024 and has been a key veteran presence on and off the field for the Eagles.

He went 9-7 with a 3.23 ERA in 26 regular-season starts and had a 1-0 record with a 4.50 ERA in two outings versus the Lions.

They got 12 hits, including two home runs, in 10 innings against Ryu. Lewin Diaz, who topped the regular season with 50 home runs and has one homer and eight RBIs in eight games in the postseason, had one of those two homers. Lee Jae-hyeon, tied for the team lead with three RBIs this series, had the other.

Ryu has had particular difficulties at Daegu Samsung Lions Park over the past two seasons. This year, he served up four runs in five innings in his one start. Last year, the lefty gave up seven runs on 15 hits in only 10 innings over two starts there.

Ryu will be countered by right-hander Ariel Jurado, who tossed seven shutout innings to help the Lions eliminate the SSG Landers in Game 4 of the previous round last Tuesday.

The veritable workhorse beat the Eagles twice in his two regular-season starts while holding them to a run on six hits in 14 innings combined, good for a 0.64 ERA, his lowest mark against any opponent in 2025. One of those six hits was a home run by Chae Eun-seong.

Jurado also held the Eagles to a 1.93 ERA in two starts last year while recording 13 strikeouts against one walk in 14 innings.

Jurado will be going on six days' rest. Ryu hasn't pitched since Sept. 26.

Yonhap