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'Ryu Hyun-jin caught' LG bows his head at the plate, out of respect
"We thought a lot about it."
On the day Ryu Hyun-jin (Hanwha Eagles) returned to the KBO after a 4,188-day absence, LG's players were thinking about how to play the game and how to welcome him. The result of their deliberations was a greeting. In the top of the first inning, Park Hae-min took off his helmet and bowed to Ryu.
After the game, which ended in an 8-2 victory for the LG Twins, Park said, "We thought a lot about it. What should I do, because (Oh) Ji-hwan, (Kim) Hyun-soo, (Park) Dong-won, and (Ryu) Hyun-jin came back to shine for Korea, and I'm the leadoff hitter, so I decided to say hello."
When San Diego Padres special advisor Park Chan-ho returned to Korea in a Hanwha uniform in 2012, current NC coach Lee Jong-wook, who batted first for the Doosan Bears against Hanwha on April 12, greeted Park and welcomed the "Korean Express" back to Korea. Thirteen years later, Ryu Hyun-jin received a respectful greeting from the opposing team.
If Chan Ho Park made history as the first Korean major leaguer, Ryu Hyun-jin added another page to the book as the best major leaguer to come out of the KBO. Since returning to Korea, Ryu has accomplished so much in the United States and Canada that it's safe to say he's never missed the major leagues.
Even if he didn't win a championship, he made it to the World Series and was the Opening Day starter. He also had the honor of starting the All-Star Game. In 2019, he led the major leagues in ERA (2.32) and finished second in the National League Cy Young Award voting.
For Ryu, the LG players prepared for the opening game with both a competitive spirit and respect. Park Hae-min, who greeted Ryu, said, "We said to him, 'Thank you for your hard work, thank you for shining for our country,' and we all said it together to show our respect."
They gave it their all in the game. LG scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning against Ryu Hyun-jin, capitalizing on six hits and three walks. The runs were unearned due to an error, but LG was clearly a different team. This wasn't the same LG that Ryu had beaten with 22 wins, the most in the KBO.
On the one hand, Ryu's pitches were different. Of the 86 pitches he threw, 31 were balls. It's certainly unusual for Ryu to record three strikeouts in a game.
Still, Ryu is Ryu is Ryu. The LG batters in the opening game kept things tight until the end. Park Hae-min, who hit the go-ahead RBI single in the fourth inning, said, "I have so many pitches, so it's not just fastballs that I throw from the end of the plate to the end of the plate. When I saw him throw a curve slider and a changeup against left-handed hitters, I realized that he's a really great pitcher."
Hong Chang-ki, who added an RBI single in the fourth inning, said, "It was tricky because he had good control. His pitches were quick and slow, then suddenly fast and slow, so it was hard to get the timing right."
Shin Min-jae, who hit an RBI double in the first inning, said, "He had a good fastball, so I tried to hit it in a fast count. He said he only had a 2% changeup for left-handed hitters, so I only thought of two pitches, a fastball and a curveball."