Two foreign pitchers from the KBO League are attracting attention with impressive performances in the American Professional Baseball Major League (MLB) this season.메이저사이트
The two are right-hander Merrill Kelly (Arizona Diamonds), who played for SK Wyverns (predecessor of SSG Landers), and left-hander Brooks Reilly (New York Mets), former Lotte Giants ace. They are raising their stock prices by putting their names at the top of the personal record in the pitching category.
◆Armed with various control skills Kelly,
who has been a part of the Arizona starting lineup since 2019, has been responsible for more than 5 innings in 10 consecutive games, starting with the Los Angeles Dodgers match on the 7th of last month, the second starting game this season.
During this period, he achieved quality starts (less than 3 earned runs in 6 innings) 6 times, and scored double-digit strikeouts in 2 games.
Kelly earned his 6th win (3rd loss) of the season and tied for first place in the National League (NL) with the most wins. At the same time, his earned run average was brought down to 2.83, ranking 5th in this category. His batting average (0.192) is second, and the most strikeouts (69) is 10th.
It is evaluated that his sharpened control is the secret to his good pitching. Against the Boston Red Sox on the 29th of last month (hereafter Korean time), Kelly used various breaking balls such as a changeup, cut fastball, sinking fastball, curveball, and slider to subdue opponent batters.
Out of 108 total pitches, only 25 were fastballs, so the percentage of breaking pitches is high.
Boston coach Alex Cora praised Kelly after the game, comparing her to Greg Maddux, who was called “the magician of the ninth ball.”
◆Rayleigh transformed from Lotte Ace to Mets’ winning team
Rayleigh, who changed into a Mets uniform ahead of this season, took the mound in the top of the 8th inning with a 4-2 lead against the Philadelphia Phillies on the 2nd.
Rayleigh, who connected the team’s victory, took his 13th hold of the season and tied for second place in the MLB overall in this category. The first place in this category was Milwaukee Brewers’ Peter Stzelecki (14 holds).
Rayleigh, who was on the injured list due to inflammation of the elbow in April, has been showing iron wall pitching since the 15th of last month after returning. He is scoreless in his last 9 games and 7.2 innings.
In doing so, he lowered his earned run average, which soared to 5.23, to the 2-point range. If the current trend continues, it is expected that he will surpass his personal best performance in one season last year (1 win, 2 losses, 25 holds, 6 saves, an average ERA of 2.68).
Rayleigh, who played for Lotte for five seasons from 2015, returned to the big leagues in 2020 with a record of 48 wins (53 losses) and an average ERA of 4.13 in the KBO League.