Park Wins His Second

The journey to his second victory was long and tough. But he didn’t give up and the goddess of fortune smiled upon him at last.

Korean Park Chan-ho (31-year-old, Texas Rangers) started a road game against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays held at Tropicana Field on May 13, and allowed five runs with two homers, seven hits, two walks and one hit by pitch over seven innings, but captured his second victory (three losses) with the help of strong batting support.

It was his first victory in 26 days and his fourth starting assignment since the game against Seattle on April 17. Park threw 103 pitches, with 60 strikes and five strikeouts. He now has an ERA of 5.65. Although he was struggling to control his condition due to the delayed schedule and with a slight cold, his revived throwing including fastballs over 150km/h even late in the game presented him the victory. The Rangers’ strong batting included four timely homers which helped to ease Park’s burden.

Park said, “Fast tempo pitching, focusing on four-seam fastballs all worked well. I am happy to finish up to the seventh inning.”

He made a troubling start by repeating the “Walk and follow up homer” twice. He walked Aubrey Huff with two outs and a 0-0 count in the first inning, and gave up a two-run homer by Tino Martinez, in the third inning with a 4-2 lead, a runner on second base and one out, he gave up a walk and a follow up three-run homer by Huff. He gave up consecutive homers for the last four games, and 10 homers over seven starts this season. (He ranks first in homers allowed in the American League)

Texas scored two to reverse the score, 6-5, and in the bottom of the fourth inning, Park faced difficulty with runners on first and third base and one out, however he induced a double play to escape from it.

Gaining the momentum, Park delivered fastballs exceeding 150km/h including four strikeouts after the fifth inning, not allowing any runs until he left the mound in the seventh inning. Rangers edged out Rays with 9-8.

Florida Marlines’ Choi Hee-seop, 25, fanned three times for two straight days at the road game against Houston Astros. He came up as the fifth hitter and had no hits, a walk, and three strikeouts in three at-bats.

Meanwhile, Kim Seon-woo (Montreal Expos) and Seo Jae-eung (New York Metz) will start on May 14. Kim will appear at the road game against Milwaukee Brewers at 2:05 a.m. (Korean time), and Seo in the game against Arizona Diamond Backs at 10:05 a.m (Korean time).

Jong-Seok Kim kjs0123@donga.com