Here is his entire, postgame interview-room transcript, so you can see the words for yourself.
The question was asked of Don Mattingly first, but only because he came into the interview room before Hyun-Jin Ryu did. Here is Mattingly’s answer:
“It seemed like he had trouble getting settled in, and tonight was one of those nights. Usually with him, there is more swing and miss, and there was really no swing and miss tonight. His velocity was OK. It seemed like he touched 93 (mph), and we have seen him starting out at 90-91, which is pretty normal for him. He just didn’t seem to have that same finish and be able to locate. So you know, it was just one of those rough nights. … It just seemed like he was a little out of sorts tonight. Just got going a little too fast. … He was fine (physically). There were no restrictions on him tonight. … If there had been anything physically wrong, we wouldn’t have let him pitch today.”
And then, there was a follow-up from one of the Korean reporters, asking if Ryu will be given another chance to pitch in this postseason.
“We hope,” Mattingly said. “You know, if we can win, put another win on the board, he gets another opportunity. We don’t turn our back on guys that have had great seasons for us after one game. So yeah, he is part of what we do.”
And then a little while later, Ryu himself came into the interview room and answered questions through an interpreter. He was extremely contrite about the two botched defensive plays on back-to-back hitters in that third inning. But when asked about his physical well-being, he was just as insistent as his manager that there is nothing wrong.
“There was absolutely no injury whatsoever,” he said. “Of course, there was anxiety, and I was a little bit nervous taking the mound. … I was fully confident that my body was fine. I know myself better than anyone else. It doesn’t matter what people say. I’m not hurt, so it wasn’t a distraction at all.”
Well OK, then.
By the way, you will notice that the postgame video that I normally post wasn’t posted tonight. That was because I was told by a Major League Baseball official that I wasn’t allowed to videotape anything from the interview room. I went to the clubhouse and got a little bit from Chris Capuano, which I will post, but most of the guys who really played a significant part in the outcome of tonight’s game were brought to the interview room.
I don’t think this is going to be a problem beyond tonight. I have known this particular MLB official for years and always have had a good working relationship with her. I asked her later to clarify exactly which rule prohibits me from shooting and posting video from the interview room, and she was perfectly conciliatory, said she would check and get back to me tomorrow and that it might be perfectly OK for me to do it, she just wants to be certain. So just bear with me on this, and hopefully things will be back to normal by tomorrow.
And if the Dodgers wrap up the series tomorrow, I’ll try to get video of the clubhouse celebration just as I did when they clinched the division two weeks ago.
Finally, just as I guessed it would, the whole Clayton Kershaw-or-Ricky Nolasco thing became a moot point when the Dodgers took care of business tonight.
“The biggest thing was getting the win today,” Mattingly said. “That has kind of been the plan the whole time, is kind of to win every day. I would like to be able to close us out tomorrow. I didn’t know there was a debate (about Kershaw vs. Nolasco for Game 4), really. Lot of questions, right? You never know what happens. Twists and turns of this game.”
I’ll have another, longer post on Hanley Ramirez coming up shortly. Oh, and the Capuano video.