Game #110 Preview: Richards vs Ryu

The Blue Jays wrap up their 4 game series, as well as their season series, against the Red Sox this afternoon. They’ll look to take 3 of 4 here, and also run their season record to 9-10. The game gets underway shortly, starting at 1:07 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Ace Hyun Jin Ryu will go for his AL Leading 12th win today. Through his first 21 starts and 123.0 innings, Ryu is 11-5 with a 3.22 ERA. His FIP is a bit higher at 3.62, although that 0.40 difference from his ERA to his FIP is just a little bit more than his career difference of 0.35. Some pitchers are able to just beat their FIP, up to a point anyway. This seems like a very reasonable gap for Ryu.

This will be Ryu’s fourth start against the Red Sox this year, registering one stinker and two gems. The stinker came on April 20, where Ryu lasted just 5 innings, allowing 4 runs on 8 hits. He didn’t walk anyone, struck out 2 and gave up a 3 run home run to Xander Bogaerts. Other than that game (that inning even - the other 4 were scoreless), Ryu has had a good season against the Red Sox. In his other two starts, he went a combined 13 shutout innings, allowing just 6 hits and no walks while striking out 12.

Red Sox’ Starter

Veteran righty Garrett Richards will make the start for the Red Sox, his 22nd of the season. He is 6-7 with a 5.21 ERA, and a matching 5.13 FIP. Richards has been struggling across the board, posting his worst numbers in years (outside of an 8.2 inning 2019 season). He has his lowest strikeout rate since 2013 (7.26 per 9 innings), his highest walk rate since 2012 (4.02 per 9 innings) and his highest home run rate for any season he pitched more than 14 innings (1.45 per 9 innings). All in all, a very bad season, and it’s really weird how he has been able to make consistent starts for a team with division title aspirations.

Richards hasn’t done any better while facing the Jays this year, this being his 6th start against them. In 4 of the 5 starts, he allowed 4 runs over varying amounts of innings. Just once he had a good start, allowing 2 runs on 7 hits over 6.2 innings. In a total of 26.1 innings, he has allowed 18 runs on 34 hits and 18 walks, striking out 17 and allowing 5 home runs. Another funny little tidbit in these starts - 4 of his 5 wild pitches have been against the Jays this year.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Where’s Bo?

Red Sox’ Lineup

Yesterday’s Heroes

Jesse Winker went 3-5 with a home run and a double, driving in 6 runs to earn the Monster Bat award. Winker’s output helped carry his Reds to the 11-3 win over the Pirates.

Riley Adams launched a 2-out, 2-run home run in the top of the 9th inning, the first home run of his career, to get him the WPA King award. His .663 WPA was the big shot in the game, and his Nationals held on for the 3-2 win over the Braves.

Yu Darvish threw 7 dominant innings, allowing 2 runs on 4 hits while walking none and striking out 12 to pick up the Pitcher of the Day award. His Padres beat the Diamondbacks 6-2.

Find the Link

Find the link between Xander Bogaerts and Marcus Semien (who are sticking their tongues out at Rafael Devers).

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant