20th Save Ending Nightmare for Kim

Kim Byung-hyun of Arizona Diamondback (23) won his 20th save in this season, the record high through his Major League career. This came just one day before the selection of All-Star Players.

The game took place on June 30th KST in Jacob’s Field, an away game against Cleveland Indians. He took the mound in the bottom of the 9th with his team leading 4-2. First he got off to a little unstable start. He loaded the bases through one hit, one base on balls and one error. But Kim struck out the following hitters, giving no point.

By this save, Kim placed himself sixth on the best relief pitchers’ list with 20 saves (1 wins and one loss), breaking his last year’s record of 19 and the long 11 days of slump. The number 9 had spelled a jinx on him. He could not get over 19 saves to 20th. Top on the list is Eric Gagne of LA Dodgers, whose excellent performance so far surprised the ML.

Kim’s new record was made even before half of the season is over. He gets credit for more than half of his team’s 47 wins (32 losses): he accounted for 23 of them. This record got Kim much closer to a spot in All-Star selection, which was floating farther away from him after he gave up a walkoff grand slam and a homer earlier this week in the losses at Houston.

Kim allowed Chris Magruder to the first base in base on balls. He safely handled the next hitter Omar Vizquel. He got out in a left-field fly. But the third baseman catched and threw Ellis Burks’ normal ground ball to the second base, giving safe to all runners. Kim got further pinched into corner. Jim Tommy made a hit to the left field. Kim fully loaded the bases with one out.

Kim demonstrated his real value at this moment. Despite the manager’s hustling and bustling in preparing for Kim’s reliever, he turned around. He struck out Travis Fryman and Milton Bradley for his 20th save.

Hwan-Soo Zang zangpabo@donga.com