NC's Erick Fedde shows off perfect game against Doosan

Erick Fedde, the American starting pitcher who made his debut on the Korean stage this year, led his team NC Dinos to a 4-1 victory against the Doosan Bears on Wednesday, pitching six innings with one hit, one walk, and six strikeouts without allowing any runs. Having suffered a 5-game losing streak until the previous day, the Dinos managed to escape the losing streak with the pitching performance of their "new ace," Fedde. With this win, Fedde, who has now chalked up 11 wins (1 loss) this season, further lowered his earned run average to 1.61, leading the KBO league tables in wins and ERA.

Notably, Fedde shut down the Doosan lineup perfectly until the first out of the 5th inning. The American allowed the first hit to Yang Seok-hwan but then managed to strike out the next two batters. In the 6th inning, after giving up a walk, he escaped a crisis with a sacrifice bunt and a throwing error, striking out Heo Gyeong-min and Kim Jae-hwan consecutively. Fedde threw a tricky mix of breaking balls including cut fastballs, changeups, and curveballs, with the fastest pitch of the day reaching 153 km/h. "There is not a single pitch that is predictable,” NC catcher Park Se-hyuk explained Fedde's growing dominance as the top pitcher in the domestic league.

Fedde, who was selected as the 18th overall pick in the 2014 MLB Rookie Draft and joined the Washington Nationals, was an axis of the starting rotation of the Nationals until last year. He was also a member of the Washington Nationals when they won the World Series in 2019.

When Fedde entered the foreign players’ market, several domestic teams including NC jumped into a heated competition to recruit him. Scott Boras, Fedde’s agent, said, "NC was the first to make an offer and after negotiations, we decided to sign with them."


Heon-Jae Lee uni@donga.com