[Baseball] Park Pitches 3 Strong Innings in Relief

Pitcher Park Chan-ho of the Los Angeles Dodgers yesterday threw three strong innings of relief in a 2-1 home loss to the Colorado Rockies, getting six strikeouts.

Park replaced Clayton Kershaw with the Dodgers behind 2-0 in the top of the sixth, striking out all three batters in the inning and the first in the seventh. He finished with two hits and no runs in the game.

The game was the first time for Park to get six strikeouts since July 21, 2006. With 32 of his 48 pitches strikes, he lowered his earned-run average from 2.41 to 2.21.

Park struck out the Rockies’ Garrett Atkins, Chris Iannetta and Jeff Baker to end the sixth fast.

In the seventh, he also got Omar Quintanilla swinging to record his fourth straight strikeout. Aaron Cook singled, but Park got the next batter out though Cook reached second base. Jonathan Herrera singled to get Colorado men on first and third, but Park struck out Ryan Spilborghs to finish the inning.

After striking out Todd Helton in the eighth inning, Park got Atkins to ground out and Iannetta to fly out. Park pitched a career-high 158-kilometer fastball against Iannetta.

Joe Beimel replaced Park in the ninth, but the Rockies held on to win.

In Arlington, Texas, Cleveland Indians outfielder Choo Shin-soo, who blasted his first homerun of the season Wednesday, hit safely for the third game in a row.

Starting against the Texas Rangers, Choo doubled against pitcher Sydney Ponson in the second inning when his team was behind, 1-0. Ben Francisco later brought Choo home.

Choo hit 1-5 with one run scored in his team’s 15-9 loss.

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