Hyun-Jin Ryu took a small but necessary step toward pitching in the playoffs when he threw a (roughly) 20-pitch bullpen session Friday at Dodger Stadium:

Those pitches were all fastballs. As you can hear, they hit their target with a familiar pop. Ryu’s first few breaking balls wound up in the dirt, which isn’t too surprising considering Ryu hadn’t thrown breaking pitches off a mound in two weeks.

Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said that Ryu will try to throw a bullpen session at full intensity Sunday, and “if that goes good he’ll move on to some type of sim game.”

As for the National League Division Series, which begins a week from today, Mattingly said that he intends to use Ryu as a starter if he’s available.

“It’s hard to say he lines up for anything at this moment,” Mattingly said.

It’s easy to rule out Ryu pitching in games one and two of the series at Dodger Stadium, though Mattingly wouldn’t confirm that Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke are slotted to start those games.