Although it was already somewhat unlikely that Dodgers left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu was going to see action in the first round of playoffs anyway, he did nothing to bolster his chances on Friday night against the Colorado Rockies at mile-high Coors Field, where the Rockies routed the Dodgers 9-1 in the third-to-final game of the 2017 regular season.

The 6′-3″ / 250-pound  Incheon, South Korea native allowed five runs on six hits while striking out only one and walking one in his unplanned brief two innings of work against a Rockies team that is now only one win away from clinching the final National League Wild Card spot with two more to play against the NL West Champion Dodgers.

“It was a struggle for him to navigate through the lineup,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters after the game.

A struggle indeed. Ryu faced a grand total of 13 Rockies batters, of which three of the first nine homered, accounting for five of the Rockies eventual nine runs.

“My command wasn’t as sharp as I’d like it to be,” Ryu said.

Roberts downplaying Hyun-Jin Ryu’s struggles on Friday night may have been more about political correctness with the media than the fact that he probably pitched himself out of the NLDS starting rotation.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

But did the popular rock-star-like 30-year-old lefty pitch himself off of the playoff roster – at least for the short Division Series?

“It’s one start and Hyun-Jin’s had a terrific year up to this point,” Roberts said. “You don’t ever want to think one start determines a player’s fate [regarding making the postseason roster]. You look at (a lot of factors). He’s had a great year. I don’t think this takes anything away from that.”

That so-called “terrific year” is going 5-9 in 25 games (24 starts) with a less-than-stellar 3.77 ERA and 1.37 WHIP in a combined 126.2 innings pitched, 116 strikeouts and 45 walks, suggesting that “terrific” – like beauty – is in the eye of the beholder.

Fortunately for Ryu, that beholder is his manager. Unfortunately for Ryu, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Farhan Zaidi may not necessarily see it that way.

There is every reason to believe (and no reason not to) that Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw will pitch game-1 of the NLDS, which kicks off at Dodger Stadium on Friday, October 6 (and quite possibly against these same Colorado Rockies), with right-hander Yu Darvish and fellow left-hander Rich Hill pitching games two and three, although not necessarily in that order. That being said and should the Division Series go four or five games, Ryu’s chances of starting one of those games increases exponentially.

Should that occur, let’s hope it’s the “terrific” Hyun-Jin Ryu that shows up and not the other one.