NY Mets Seo Stops short of Third Win

Pitcher Seo Jae-weong, 27-years-old, of the New York Mets, stopped short of winning his third victory.

Seo allowed four runs in five innings on four walks and five hits, which included one home run. He took the loss in a 11-4 defeat. As of May 21, Seo posted two wins and four losses while his ERA rose to 5.30 from 4.99. Seo took off to a smooth start. In the game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Shea Stadium on May 21, Seo had a no-hitter going into the third inning. With a series of splitters that he debuted that day, he extracted three strikeouts from 10 hitters and gave up one walk until the third inning.

In the fourth inning with the Mets leading the Cardinals 2-0, Seo began to be swayed and gave up a solo home run to Albert Pujols after one out and was battered by two consecutive hits after a walk after two outs, which tied the game.

While he was boosted by a run the Mets scored at the bottom of the fourth inning, two consecutive hits by the Cardinals had Seo relieved by Orber Moreno in the sixth inning. The relievers gave in to two base runners and let them come back for a score of 3-4. This caused Seo to take the loss.

Meanwhile, Choi Hee-seop of the Florida Marlins got a hit for the third straight game and scored a run as well as a walk in a game against the Houston Astros. His batting average rose to 0.241 from 0.238.

Chang Jeon jeon@donga.com