“Mission Set for 57S”

Here are the two players.

John Smoltz(36, Atlanta Braves) Eric Gagne (27, LA Dodgers). Needless to say, they are the best closers.

They remind us of Mark (McGwire Saint Louis Cardinals at that time) and Sammy Sosa(Chicago Cubs) in 1998 as Smoltz and Gagne are also competing each other in making new records of this year.

Their goal is having the most saves by season`s end. Bobby Thigpen of the Chicago Whitesox increased the Major League record total to 57 saves in 1990 and the has been unbroken since then. So far Smoltz and Gagne have 43 and 41 saves respectively placing themselves as the first and second best relief pitcher in the National League.

Assuming their teams complete all the 162 games of the season, Smoltz and Gagne are expected to have around 56 and 54 saves respectively.

They were both starting players but switched to closers. However, the situation was totally different.

Smoltz was an outstanding player of the Atlanta. Smoltz was often referred to as the superb ‘starting trio’ along with Tom Glavine (now New York Mets) and Greg Maddux in 1990, when the team was praised to be in its best shape. But he had to have an elbow surgery after the end of the 1999 season and underwent one year of rehabilitation

When he returned to his team, the team made him play a closer concerning recurrence of his injury. He adopted to his position well in 2001 and last year he broke the National League record by having 55 saves and have been called the ‘Atlanta’s Guardian Angel’ since then.

On the other hand, people did not pay much of their attention to Gagne. He entered the Major League in 1999 but had only 11-14 throughout 3 seasons. LA Dodgers manager Jim Tracy found potential in him as a closer and changed his position as relief specialized pitcher.

Gagne pleased Tracy with his amazing 52 saves with 1.97 ERA last year. “I am born to be a closer. I like short but hot pitches. I did not enjoy much of being a starting pitcher. Too many pitches and too many innings were not suited to my temper.

They both pitch eerie fast balls and Smoltz is superb at slider and Gagne is splendid at change-up. Smoltz is having only 0.92 ERA while Gagne has been having 41 perfect saves straight having zero ER.

Who would you say will be the king of relief pitchers of the National League or break the record of Thigpen?

Sang-Soo Kim ssoo@donga.com