Kim Byung-Hyun, Call Me `Killer K`

Who will hit BK’s ball?

Kim Byung-Hyun (23. Arizona Diamondbacks) is emerging as `fearful pitcher` among the Major League batters. It is difficult enough to even touch his ball.

Match with Pittsburgh Pirates took place at Arizona’s Bank One Ballpark on the 8th. Kim appeared on the mound in the 9th inning, when the team was leading by 7-6, and stroke out all of Pittsburgh’s batting line that connected Wilson-Brown-Reese to score the season’s 9th save.

Kim earned no loss point in all 7 consecutive matches, and scored 1 inning-3K relief in 2 matches in a row. If his strikeout of the last two batters during the Montreal match on the 5th is included for calculation, he has thrown out as many as 8 batters all in a row. Such number is Kim’s personal tie-record (twice in the 2000 season) as well as Arizona’s team tie-record.

This season’s strikeout record of Kim is big enough to astonish the Major League. Since the first match, he scored strikeouts in all 15 games, plus 33 strikeouts in 18 innings. Average strikeout per inning counts 1.83, which is the Major League’s highest. On such pace, this season’s predicted number of strikeouts is 167, which will overrun what Huston’s Billy Wagner recorded (124) in 1999.

Arizona fans are impressed by Kim’s performance too. On the day, Arizona Diamondbacks website’s (www.azdiamondbacks.com) `message board` was filled with fans’ exclamations.

One fan with ID `deepblue` wrote `Amazing performace` under the title `Oh my God`, and other fans also left remarks, such as “He seems untouchable. BK deserves the All-Star (slimdre)” and “Kim should be named `Killer K` (bautlistic)”.

Kim expressed some discomfort after the game by saying, “I feel restless about doing too good. I even feel uneasy to see the audience rise in applause. It’d be better if I get hit instead.”

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com