Dodgers: Ryu Will Be Out for a Long Time, Buehler Will Take His Spot

The Dodgers worse fears were confirmed on Thursday afternoon after they received word on the severity of Hyun-jin Ryu’s injury. An MRI revealed that Ryu’s groin injury was much worse than any of us could ever imagine. Try not to wince when you read this tweet from LA Times reporter Andy McCullough.

The strain in Hyun-Jin Ryu’s groin was severe. He tore the muscle off the bone, Dave Roberts said.

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— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) May 3, 2018

I cannot even begin to imagine the pain that Ryu had to experience with this injury. It makes sense now that there was no way he could continue despite cruising through his first inning of work. It was clear that he was in pain. With this injury, Walker Buehler will be called up to fill out the rotation, which makes the sting of this injury hurt a little less.

Ryu had been cruising so far in 2018, pitching to a 2.12 earned run average. This was his sixth start of the season, and he ended up pitching a total of 29.2 innings of work right up until he had to depart the game last night.

Hyun-Jin Ryu is out until after the All-Star break. Walker Buehler goes into the rotation.

— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) May 3, 2018

Injuries continue to plague the Dodgers, part of the reason why they sit near the bottom of the standings. Justin Turner, Corey Seager, Yasiel Puig, Rich Hill, Logan Forsythe, and Tom Koehler have all been hit with the injury bug early in the year. And boy has that hurt the team.

The good news is that Buehler is going to be given an extended chance to prove himself with this opening. The same way Cody Bellinger got his opportunity last year when Adrian Gonzalez went down for an extended period. Buehler has started two games so far, and pitched a total of ten innings. He has allowed two earned runs, good for a 1.80 earned run average to kick off the season. Buehler has also struck out eleven batters over the course of those ten innings. He will need to improve on his control though, as he has a tendency to work counts full before putting them away.

Analysis

Another tough break for the Dodgers in what has been a season of tough breaks. All things considered though, the team is lucky to have Buehler waiting in the wings. The team’s health is coming together, and should have the majority of their big name players back within a few weeks. Let’s hope that is the spark that the team needs to get back into the swing of things.