Mike Petriello of Dodger blog Mike Scoscia's Tragic Illness posted this morning about a report I had not even seen. Hyun-Jin Ryu threw a bullpen session yesterday, with the team's surgeon Neal ElAttrache (one of the most renowned sports surgeons in the world), medical director, and Don Mattingly watching. I have known Mike for some time now so if he is concerned there is certainly reason behind it.

As Mike notes in his article, Ryu does not usually throw bullpen sessions. He did so with a compression sleeve on his pitching elbow.

I don’t want to cause a panic, because clearly I’m no doctor and I’m not in the room. But as that Ken Gurnick quote indicates, this is a guy who almost never throws bullpen sessions. When he does, I’m thinking it’s safe to guess that he doesn’t do so without one of the most renowned surgeons in the country watching him. So I don’t think it’s unfair to wonder if A) he can even go and B) what sort of strength he’ll be at if he can. It’s not exactly the conversation you want to be having tied at one in a five-game playoff series.

In all likelihood Ryu will be okay to start, but I do think there may be something to the latter portion of the paragraph I quoted from Petriello's blog. The fact that he hardly ever throws bullpen sessions, has the surgeon and medical director watching him, was wearing a compression sleeve, and was doing so just two days before his scheduled playoff spot makes it sound like not everything is exactly right with Ryu's throwing arm.

We will continue to monitor Ryu's status throughout the day.