Dodgers’ Hyun-Jin Ryu And Andre Ethier Will Start Against The Nationals

The Dodgers’ announced early Wednesday morning that they plan to start Hyun-Jin Ryu this weekend in Kenta Maeda’s place.

Hyun-Jin Ryu will start Sunday in Washington. Kenta Maeda moves back, will start later in Philly series. #Dodgers

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— Bill Plunkett (@billplunkettocr) September 13, 2017

Hyun Jin Ryu has arguably been one of the more surprising players this season. After missing two full seasons due to a shoulder injury, many speculated that he may never return to the show. However, he has surprised everyone! Not only has he returned to the Dodgers’ mound, he has also been better than ever.

Ryu’s win, loss record is upside down, however, his ERA and recent outings have been brilliant after a rocky start to the year. In the last month, Ryu has posted a modest mid 3’s ERA. However, if you take out the rocky start against the Dbacks, it’d be much lower. Ryu has been one of those surprise guys for the Dodgers this year. He, Alex Wood, Cody Bellinger, and Chris Taylor run that group of guys who weren’t expected to be such high impact players.

The reasoning for skipping Maeda’s start has not yet been released, however, they could just be giving him some extra rest in preparation for a postseason role. Maeda has struggled as of late, he has an ERA of 6.26 in the last month. He was rocked pretty hard against the Giants on Monday, where he gave up four runs in three innings. Hopefully, a rest will get him back on track.

#Dodgers starter Kenta Maeda has the second best strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.30) in the National League since the All-Star break.

— J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) September 11, 2017

Dave Roberts also shared that he plans to start Dodger fan favorite Andre Ethier on Friday.

Andre Ethier will start on Friday.

— Andy McCullough (@ByMcCullough) September 13, 2017

I don’t think a day goes by where fans aren’t complaining that Curtis Granderson is getting starts over Andre Ethier. Granderson has struggled since becoming a Dodgers, with just 8 hits in 75 at-bats (.107 AVG).

When asked about why he continues to give the struggling Granderson opportunities, this is his response:

Roberts said he is starting Granderson to get him right.

— Ken Gurnick (@kengurnick) September 13, 2017

Andre Ethier is 4-14 with a home run and one run scored since coming off of the disabled list. However, something to note is that 13 of those at-bats have come against right-handed pitching. It appears that not only are they easing him back into regular playing time, but they are also using him almost exclusively against righties.