Byoung-Hyun `No problem of Lefties

`Now forget about left hand hitters, head coach!` It seems that Kim Byoung-Hyun (23-year-old, the Arizona Diamondbacks) is like to relay this message to Bob Brenly, the head coach at bullpen.

On May 3, the Arizona Diamondbacks met head on with the New York Mets at Bank One Ballpark in Arizona in the U.S. Major League Baseball games. Kim Byoung-Hyun enter the game in eighth inning when the D-backs led the Mets five to three, and completely blocked left hitters of the Mets, gaining his sixth save in the season with one hit, two shut-out, and no score.

The save he got today is the 40th since he entered into the major league in 1999. The Mets was the team against which Kim got the first save in his career as a pitcher.

Main weapon of Kim was his unique `up-shoot (balls up surging right before hitters). He shut out the starter of eighth inning, `big gun` Piazza, with up-shoot, and then stroke out Alphonzo and Burmitz with nonchalant balls.

The ball that taken up the starter of the ninth winning, Johnson, was also `up-shoot.` But, even though he faced a crisis of first and second base loaded situation with two hitters to go, by a defense error followed by a hit in the center by Cedeno, he kept D-backs` lead of seven to three by flying out Alomar and grounding out Perez. Kim got the wonders of home fans by pitching a 95 miles an hour straight ball (153 km), a rare feat for an underhand thrower when he faced the last hitter of the ninth inning Perez.

Kim faced in the day eight hitters, but the lefthanders comprised the majority six. But except giving out to Cedeno with a hit, Kim defended the rest five hitters with insignificant fly balls. This surely defeated the assumption of Arizona coach Brenly who used Mike Meyers, a left hand underhand thrower, as a closer when lefthanders were on the line, as the coach thought Kim was weak to lefties.

Thus Kim recorded so far in the season six save with 0.71 ERA, and showed himself that he was strong against lefties, making his chances of stepping the plate in the future brighter.

Sports expert channel ESPN also published a special article on Kim Byoung-Hyun in the edition of May 3 saying, `BK, nicknamed kid, overcome the pain of the World Series last year, and is very active this year to gain the unshakeable confidence of colleagues.`

In other story, Mike Cameron of the Seattle Mariners hit four consecutive homers, a tie record in the major league, during the game with the Chicago Whitesox held at Comiskey Park.

Cameron, who recorded five homers before the game in the season and scored 25 homers in the last season, hit back-to-back homers in the first inning, which combined with Bret Boone`s back-to-back homers in the inning is the record of the major league.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com