5th Victory of Seo Jae-eung, ‘Art Pitching’

Seo Jae-eung rose up to be the new ace of New York Mets with his 4th victory of the season. He showed outstanding performance throughout the game. It was the away game with Florida Marlines at Pro players Stadium on the 18th.

Starter Seo Jae-eung pitched perfectly up to the 5th inning not allowing the first base, retiring 13 batters in a row. A perfect control, every ball seemed to hit the strike zone. Seo threw 15 strikes for his first pitch among the 21 batters he encountered. 78% of his pitches were strike, which allowed him to deserve the word ‘artist’.

He allowed his only one hit in the 5th inning. Juan Enkanacion hit the ball hard to hit the outfield left fence. However, Florida’s opportunity ended right there. Seo continued his march without losing a point after making easy outs out of the 2 following batters.

Seo had his fore fingernail broken in the 7th inning, leading the Marlines 1-0. He came down from the mound, but the relievers Dave Weathers and Armando Benites pitched well to keep the victory. Mets beat Marlines 5-0.

The batting line-up of Florida that gained victory with a shutout a day before was beat by Seo; only 1 hit was there among the 27 batters. It was only after 42 years when the pitching staff of New York Mets faced only 27 hitters in one game. Mets pitching staff allowed only one hit without walk, and Florida`s Enkanacion who had the hit was picked off while trying to steal the second base. Florida’s attack ended with exactly 27 hitters.

Seo Jae-eung said that he didn`t know such record was set, and that he was even happier to payback the defeat a day before.

He shut Florida`s batting line during the 6 2/3 innings with 4 strikeouts and dropped his ERA to 2.66 (4th in National League). It was his 5th win of the season (2L) He also became the leader in not losing a point in the 1st inning for 13 consecutive games. He has been continuing with his quality pitching (throwing for 6 innings and allowing less than 3 earned run) for 6 games in a row as well, being the ‘iron wall’ of New York Mets` mound.

Meanwhile, Atlanta Braves pitcher Bong Jung-geun pitched as the reliever and lost no points in one inning.