Ryu Hyun-jin, 37, a monster pitcher for the Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization, used to be known as the “Boy Wonder. Twelve years later, he is still the most unlucky pitcher in the KBO. His bullpen has given him a league-high four wins, and he’s been held to five wins in three games. He’s on pace to win less than 10 games like he did in 2012, his last season in the major leagues.

Ryu got off to a quality start against the Kiwoom Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on April 11, allowing three runs on six hits with one walk and three strikeouts in six innings. He turned the mound over to the bullpen in the bottom of the seventh inning with Hanwha leading 4-3 and in need of his sixth win of the season, but the bullpen immediately tied the game.

Park Sang-won led off with a fly ball to center field, but was stranded after giving up a straight ball to Choi Joo-hwan. Han Seung-hyuk then came to the mound and struck out Lee Joo-hyung on a wild pitch, but allowed pinch-hitter Park Soo-jong to steal second. After giving up a walk to Ronnie Dawson, Kim Hye-sung was hit by a forked ball in the middle of the first pitch, which he lined to right-center for a two-run double to tie the game at 4-4. Ryu’s sixth win of the season was once again blown.

Including this game,

Ryu has blown four starts out of the bullpen this season, the most in the league. On May 14 against Daejeon NC, he pitched six innings of two-run ball and blew a 3-2 lead, but in the seventh inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Lee Min-woo hit a three-run double off Kim Hyung-joon to blow the game.

Then, on May 25, against SSG in Munhak, the team held SSG to one run in six innings and blew a one-run lead. The middle innings of the seventh and eighth innings were well-pitched, but in the ninth inning, closer Joo Hyun-sang gave up a run to tie the game at 2-2 and lose the game. It was the first blown save of the season for closer Joo Hyun-sang, who has only two blown saves this season. Against Jamsil Doosan on April 12, he pitched six innings and two runs, 안전놀이터 but Kim Gyu-yeon gave up a run in the seventh inning to tie the game and lose another win.

All four games against Kiwoom on Nov. 11 had one thing in common: Ryu made a quality start but turned the mound over to the bullpen with a one-run lead. The bullpen’s inability to protect the lead has been a problem, but the offense hasn’t been able to get hot either. His 4.68 runs supported per nine innings ranks 15th out of 19 pitchers in regulation. He had a whopping 12 runs in five innings against Samsung Electronics in Daegu on May 19, but he also had two games with no runs, two games with one run, four games with two runs, four games with three runs, and 12 games with three runs or less.

Ryu struggled with up-and-down pitching through April, but has found his groove in May.

Since May 14, his ERA in his last nine games is 2.13, which ranks first in the league. In 98 innings pitched, he has lowered his season ERA to 3.67, which ranks ninth in the league, and he has made 11 quality starts, tied with Kwak Bin (Doosan) for the most among Korean pitchers, but is just 5-5. Fewest wins among 11 pitchers with an ERA in the 3-run range.

If things go wrong, he could win less than 10 games this season. At this point, Hanwha has played nearly 60% of the season’s schedule. Ryu is expected to make 12 more starts in the remaining 59 games of the season, and at his current pace, he’s not guaranteed to win 10 games. No matter how well Ryu pitches, it’s hard to win if the team doesn’t have the power to back him up.

Unfortunately, this is nothing new for Ryu.

In 2012, his final year with Hanwha before moving on to the major leagues, Ryu went 9-9 with a 2.66 ERA (3rd) and 210 strikeouts (1st) in 182⅔ innings pitched in 27 games (3rd), but still failed to win 10 games. That year, the Hanwha offense was held to three runs or less in a whopping 20 games, including four games with no runs, seven games with one run, five games with two runs, and four games with three runs on the day Ryu started. Twice, the bullpen blew a game.

Twelve years later, Ryu is back with Hanwha, and he’s still as classy, if not more so, than he was in his prime. However, it’s unfortunate that he can’t help the team now as he did 12 years ago. In the 11 years since Ryu’s departure, Hanwha has finished in last place five more times and changed teams repeatedly, but not much has changed. Against Kiwoom on Nov. 11, Hanwha lost 4-5 after Kim Seo-hyun hit a game-tying double off Ronnie Dawson in the bottom of the 11th inning. With 37 wins, 46 losses and two ties (.446 winning percentage), the ninth-ranked Hanwha is back within half a game of 10th-ranked Kiwoom.