Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Dodgers slugger Freddie Freeman (35) praised Michael King (29), the opponent’s starter, after the away game against San Diego on the 11th (Korea time).
“I had no choice at all,” Freeman said. “King was just good on the day, he threw well. He also controlled the ball exactly where he needed and wanted. He pitched well no matter how good the batting lineup is, what the result will be if the opposing pitcher throws good pitches,” Freeman said.
Taking the mound as the starting pitcher of the San Diego Padres on the day of the game, King displayed two hits and no run during seven innings against the Dodgers, dubbed the “strongest hitter” in the league. While allowing only three walks, he displayed flawless pitching by cutting out as many as 11 strikeouts.
After pitching a scoreless game until the seventh inning, King came down from the mound to become a winning pitcher at a time when his team won 1-0, but the bullpen allowed one run in the eighth inning to lose the win. Including the game on the day, he pitched in a total of nine games (eight starts) this season, and has a record of 3 wins, 3 losses and an ERA of 3.67.
In fact, not many had expected King’s stellar performance even before the opening of this season. He made his big league debut as a member of the New York Yankees in 2019, but he had never played full-time as a starter. In the past five seasons before moving to San Diego this year, King started only 19 games. Most of them were bullpen pitchers.
King, who is serving as the starting pitcher for the first time since his Major League debut, pitched a total of 49 innings this season as of Tuesday, demonstrating his capability as an “inning hitter” as required of a starting pitcher. His batting average is also good at 0.214.
Thanks to King’s surprise pitching, San Diego is cruising to second place in the National League West with 21 wins and 20 losses and a 0.512 win rate in the season as of Tuesday. Although the game with the world’s top-ranked Dodgers is 5.5 games, it is even more surprising because it was achieved without any special reinforcement of players last winter.
U.S. local media say that King’s hard work and meticulousness contributed to his pitching. In fact, when he was preparing for a game against Arizona last week, King closely analyzed videos of hitters from the opposing team along with Luis Campusano, 26, the main catcher of the away team, and discussed how to mix balls for the game.
“The biggest difference I made in today’s game was that I was able to strike with my breaking ball,” King told the San Diego Union-Turribune after displaying good pitching against the Dodgers. A pitcher can easily strike with his fastball, but if he repeats it two or three times, it will no longer be easy. The Dodgers was able to hit me well last time because the breaking ball that I caught a strike with my fastball did not play its role,” he said. “So I had to throw my fastball again, and batters who expected that could attack me well.” “However, because I controlled my breaking ball well this time, my fastball was able to exert more power,” he explained about the background of his good pitching.
King took the mound in an away game against the Dodgers on April 13, and allowed four home runs during five innings, becoming a losing pitcher. He thus took revenge on the game, which was a return match.토토사이트