After a month-plus of being inches away from his true self on the mound, Hyun Jin Ryu was finally back to his classic form against the Orioles on Wednesday night in Baltimore.

The Blue Jays’ ace was coming off a stretch of six starts in which he’d posted a 5.35 ERA, allowing opposing hitters to put up an .815 OPS against him. Ryu never lost control entirely or had an outing that felt like a true meltdown, but small misses tend to be magnified for finesse pitchers and for one of baseball’s most consistent starters, June was a total outlier.

Facing the O’s is a fine stage for a pitcher of Ryu’s caliber to bounce back on, of course, and he gave the Blue Jays five innings of one-run ball, striking out seven in the 10-2 win at Camden Yards. It wasn’t perfect, but Ryu finally had a little extra life on his pitches, bumping his fastball up to a peak of 92.8 mph. The lefty was also working the edges of the plate much better than he has recently, particularly with his trademark cutter.

With early strikes from that cutter and his fastball, Ryu was setting up his changeup in uncomfortable counts for hitters. That’s what was missing through June, which he finally had back.

“The last couple of outings, obviously, I wasn’t feeling mechanically well with it,” Ryu said through a team interpreter. “I was more focused on the arm slot and trying to make sure I got on top of the ball with my changeup. I think that’s the reason why the velocity went up a bit on it.”

That’s a wrap on the first half of the season for Ryu, who posted a 3.56 ERA over his first 98 2/3 innings. His April and May were entirely different from his June, of course, but at this point, it’s all about getting Ryu rolling into the second half as the leader of this rotation.

“Earlier in the season, my numbers were better and I put up some good outings,” Ryu said. “It’s the month of June I wish I could kind of take back. I’ve had some difficult outings, but going into the second half of the season, it’s a new chapter again so I’ll just keep focusing on that.”

This Blue Jays rotation has been a quiet strength recently, too. Robbie Ray has been excellent all season long while Ross Stripling’s turnaround has been remarkable. Alek Manoah has learned as he’s gone, but is coming off his best start in the big leagues, too.

The group could still use some help, but it’s in a far better place than it was earlier this season. That’s counterintuitive given Ryu’s recent stretch, but shows just how strong the group could be through the rest of July if its ace is pitching like one.

From here, Ryu expects to learn on Thursday when he’ll line up coming out of the All-Star break, which the Blue Jays can use to reset their rotation. He’ll benefit from the down time, of course, but said that he doesn’t plan to treat the entire break as a rest period. For now, he’s at least entering the second half on the right foot.

“It was the perfect outing to go into the break,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “He found what he was missing, that changeup, which is huge for him, and his cutter was better today. He located that better. It was a perfect game for him to take into the break.”

Making life easy on Ryu was the Blue Jays’ lineup, which was all over Orioles starter Matt Harvey from the moment the game started. The top of Toronto’s lineup did plenty of damage, as always, with Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. recording three hits apiece. Bichette also launched his 16th home run of the season, a two-run shot.

Coming off Tuesday’s 7-5 loss to the Orioles, this was a key win for the Blue Jays, who are feeling a sense of urgency to make up games in the American League East standings against the division’s worst team. The teams will play a rubber match on Thursday.

Toronto made another trade to bolster its bullpen on Tuesday by bringing in reliever Trevor Richards, who pitched a scoreless inning of relief behind Ryu, but a hot stretch of play through July will put even more pressure on the front office to add to this talented roster. With Ryu near his best and one of MLB’s best lineups clicking, this is what a classic Blue Jays win should look like, regardless of how rarely we’ve seen it happen together in 2021.