Undecided First Match Between Chan-Ho and Byung-Hyun

Park Chan-Ho (28, LA Dodgers) graduated from Gong-Ju High School and Hanyang University, and Kim Hyung-Hyun (22, Arizona Diamondbacks) graduated from Gwang-Ju First High School and Sungkyunkwan University. While they do not have common academic relation or regional relation, they have had a close connection.

When Kim was a sophomore in high school, he was granted the first Park Chan-Ho scholarship and they won the gold medal together in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games. And they coincidentally belong to the teams in the National League West division. Therefore, it would be a matter of course that they, as Korean full-time major leaguers, would have a sense of rivalry in good will.

Kim was upset in the game between both teams on 6th. He took the mound in order to earn the save in the 8th inning, but left the mound with a no-out and runners on full base. He became a loser in the dugout because his follower allowed the reversing hit. Kim could not forget the moment when Park jumped up from the bench shouting for joy.

Kim threw the counterpunch to Park in the Los Angeles Stadium on 21st after 15 days.

Challenging his ninth victory and the fifth consecutive win, Park pitched well through 7 innings with 7 strikeouts, three hits, and three base-on-balls. But his attempt to prevent Dellucci`s sacrifice in a situation of no-out and runners on the first and second bases bunt became the cause of later trouble in the top of fourth, leading by 2-0. Dellucci, who failed the sacrifice bunt, hit the ball straight to the midfield. Midfielder Goodwin was trying to catch while sliding into the fallen ball, but missed the ball, and the game tied with a no-out and a runner on the third base. Arizona succeeded to reverse the game with Moeller`s squeeze bunt in a situation of one-out and a runner on the third base.

But Dodgers` Grissom, who replaced Goodwin, saved Chan-Ho from the loss with a game-tying homerun in the seventh. And Dodgers got a chance to restore the lead with a runner on the first base after two outs.

Next hitter was Gary Sheffield who used to be a Chan-Ho`s helper. If Sheffield made the extra-base hit, Park who already stepped down from the mound would have been the winner. At the time, Kim Byung-Hyun took the mound. It was the moment that Park and Kim, who have never encountered before, finally stepped up to the mound together.

Kim, `a killer of sluggers`, threw the submarine fast balls of 150 km per hour, without shrinking from Sheffield, and at last captured him with a strikeout. Park had to give up to become a winner, and Kim left the mound after the eighth recording no-run and just one hit. Kim continued the no-run march for the past six games.

In the bottom of ninth, Dodgers won the game with Karros`s hit-by-pitched ball which brought home the game-winner, in a winning opportunity of a full base after one out.

Meanwhile, Kim Sun-Woo (24, Boston Redsox) took the mound in an away game with Tampa Bay Devil Rays, in which he pitched well with a strikeout for the last inning. Boston earned the 8-2 victory.

Zang Hwan-Soo zangpabo@donga.com