BK, “No More Nightmare”

Draw-homerun in the 9th inning. Nightmare of last year’s World Series could have revived again.

However, the difference was that this time, Kim Byeong-Hyun (23. Arizona Diamondbacks) was the winner.

Kim slipped on relief for the first time in this season, but managed to claim victory.

The out-match against Philadelphia Phillies was held on the 12th. As Kim stepped onto the mound during the 8th inning, when the team was leading by 5-4, after Randy Johnson, he seemed monstrous striking out all 3 batters in a row. It was the Major League’s 33rd record that 3 strikeouts were scored upon 9 balls during one inning.

However, he was hit a draw-homerun by Tomas Perez in the 9th inning, probably because of carelessness. This was the season’s first homerun and the first blown-save (relief-failure in a save situation) for Kim. In all 10 games until now, he displayed 100 Per Cent relief success rate.

The game was now extended. In the 10th inning offense, Arizona managed to hold one-point lead of 6-5, as Junior Spivey hit a two-base run. Kim, then, requested the coaching staff that he wanted to throw for one more inning. He wanted to be responsible of the match until the end.

As he appeared on the mound once again in the 10th inning, Kim quickly put out three batters and concluded the match. He said, “I was confident I could throw one more inning,”after pitching for 3 innings, despite the fact that he is a relief pitcher.

“He threw 26 balls during 2 innings, so I wanted to pull him off but he said he was okay. Pitchers make mistakes, because they are not robots. BK is no exception,” said Arizona’s manager Bob Brenly.

Kim, who recorded 2 hits, 4 strikeouts, and a loss point during 3 innings in this game, raised his ERA up to 0.82, and his season record became 1 win and 10 saves. He even batted a hit during the extended 10th inning.

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com