Ryu Hyun-jin, 36, of the Toronto Blue Jays, was undeterred by a disappointing loss.The right-hander gave up two runs on five hits in five innings of work against the visiting Oakland Athletics of Major League Baseball (MLB) on Sunday (July 7) at Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California, U.S. He suffered his second loss of the season (3-3). Toronto fell to 2-5.”Overall, I pitched well today,” he told Sportsnet Canada, The Associated Press, and others after the game, “even the pitches that gave up the home runs were good pitches.”On the day, Ryu threw 77 pitches, 50 of which were strikes. He allowed just one walk and struck out five.Despite giving up a two-run homer to Carlos Perez with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning with a 1-0 lead and the Toronto bats going silent, Ryu pitched five solid innings.He made some smart pitches, lowering the velocity of his curveball to 100.6 kilometers per hour, increasing the perceived velocity of his fastball, which he’s been utilizing effectively this season, and increasing his cutter rate to 30 percent (23), which he hasn’t been throwing much of this season.Ryu chose not to dwell on the outcome of the game.Instead, he looked ahead.The loss dropped Toronto to fourth place in the American League (AL) wild-card race.They are tied with the third-place Texas Rangers for the wild card and just 0.001 behind in winning percentage (Texas 0.551, Toronto 0.550).The Rangers need to finish in the top three wild card spots to make the fall.Major League Baseball plays 162 games per team in the regular season.On Sunday, Toronto played its 140th game.With 22 games to go, the Jays and Ryu are in full swing.For Ryu, whose contract expires at the end of the season, the remaining games are even more important.”We don’t have a lot of games left,” Ryu said. “It’s really important for all of us. We need to get 스포츠토토존 more wins,” he said.