First Hit, First Win, First Night to Remember for Seo

South Korean ML baseball fans got surprised, watching the calm pitching of Seo. Jae-eung Seo would not budge even in the face of a crisis. He threw "heavy balls" into the mitt, and the Pirates could not touch it.

Seo pitched seven shutout innings for his first major league victory against Pittsburgh Pirates in an away game held yesterday at PNC Park. In his fourth major league appearance, he got his first win. Thus, Seo became the sixth South Korean major league pitcher.

Seo`s fastball and changeup were working. Taking on 26 hitters, he was aggressive—his first ball against 19 of them was strike. In total, Seo threw 104 balls, 68 of which were strikes. What`s impressive is the fact that Seo has so much control -- he is yet to walk a batter in 18 1-3 innings.

Seo shut out the first and second, although in the latter he gave up one single. The crisis came in the fourth. Kendall`s single loaded the first and third bases with two out. Seo, however, grounded out the next batter.

Regaining stability, Seo shut out the remaining innings until he stepped down in Pirates` eighth.

Seo`s season total has become 1 winner and 1 loser, and ERA has come down from 5.23 to 3.12. He also hit a single in Mets` second.

Chang Jeon jeon@donga.com