Who Dares to Hit the Ball Pitched by Kim Byung-Hyun

`Who is able to hit his ball?`

Kim Byung-Hyun (22, Arizona Diamondbacks), `untouchable` closer, showed a strikeout parade again, recovering his ERA down to 2-ish.

Kim appeared on the mound in the bottom of the ninth inning in a road trip game against the Florida Marlins held in Miami Proplayers` Stadium, when his team was leading by 7-1. He earned two strikeouts with no hit and no run.

Thus, his ERA has been lowered from 3.00 to 2.96. Since the game against the San Francisco Giants on July 28, he recovered his ERA down to 2ish after appearing in 5 games. The total number of strikeouts he earned is 95, which is now closer to 100 strikeouts.

Kim retired the first hitter Lowell by strikeout, Lee by flying ball to the left, and then Johnson by another strikeout. Since the score difference was large, his efforts were not recorded to any win, loss or save. Thus, his season score is the same as 3 wins, 3 losses, 9 saves, and 11 holds.

Considering that his ERA in the first half of the season was 3.09, Kim`s ERA in the second half is 2.31, which is steadier than before.

Although he did not pitch as many as required for compulsory innings, his pitching is in excellent shape in that his earned hitting average is 0.169, which is better than the record (0.199) of Park Chan-Ho (LA Dodgers), who is the no. 1 in earned hitting average in National League.

Kim Sang-Soo ssoo@donga.com