Louis Cardinals pitcher Kim Kwang-hyeon of the American professional baseball team achieved three wins in the season by playing the best against the team with the highest winning percentage this season.
Kim Kwang-hyeon started in a major league visit against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco, California, USA, and threw a season-high 7 innings without scoring.
Kim Kwang-hyun threw 89 balls, gave up three hits, two walks, and caught two strikeouts.
Kim Kwang-hyun, who made his second quality start of the season, lowered his ERA from 3.79 to 3.39.
It is Kim Kwang-hyun's best pitching in the major leagues, along with throwing 87 pitches in a visit to the Milwaukee Brewers on September 15 last year and pitching 7 innings with 3 hits, 3 walks and 6 strikeouts.
However, in the match against Milwaukee, the team lost the victory 2-1.
Kim Kwang-hyun was replaced by a pinch hitter in the early 8th inning, leading 2-0.
After that, the batting line and the bullpen strengthened, San Francisco won 5-3, and Kim Kwang-hyeon took his third win (five losses) of the season.
He also succeeded in winning his first consecutive major league debut after winning his first 11 games against the Arizona Diamondbacks on the 1st.
St. Louis escaped from a two-game losing streak with a victory in their first game of three against San Francisco and San Francisco stopped their three-game winning streak.
It is the first time for Kim Kwang-hyun, who entered the major leagues last year, to face San Francisco.
San Francisco is the top team in the National League West this season.
It boasts the highest win rate (0.639) in the Major Leagues as of the 5th.
Kwang-Hyun Kim faced off with Kevin Gausman, who is considered to be the best pitcher in San Francisco.
The unexpected situation that occurred in the beginning of the fourth inning was also well overcome.
In the absence of a one-out runner, Kim Kwang-hyun threw the first pitch at San Francisco 4th batter Darin Ruff, who played for the KBO League Samsung Lions (2017-2019), and then stumbled and grimaced as if feeling pain.
It was a worrying situation because he was placed on the injured list for back pain twice this year.
St. Louis manager Mike Silt and others discussed with Kim Kwang-hyun on the mound, and Kim Kwang-hyun expressed his intentions after a few practice pitches.
Kim Kwang-hyun gave the rough a walk, but finished the inning by dealing with subsequent batters Brandon Crawford and Jalyn Davis with floats and ground balls.
Kim Kwang-hyeon also appeared at the end of the 5th inning, catching 3 ground balls with 6 balls to wash away the fear of injury, and the 6th end ended with 5 balls.
Gaussman was shaken in the 7th inning.
Gaussman, who had a no-hitter until one out in the early 7th inning, allowed the first hit to Nolan Erronado, struck out Yadier Molina, and then hit an additional hit from Tommy Edman, driving two outs to first and second base.
St. Louis veteran Matt Carpenter, who stood at the plate, knocked out Gaussman with a double and triple that hit the middle fence and gave Kwang-Hyun Kim a scoring support.
At the end of the 7th inning, leading 2-0, Kim Kwang-hyun threw a straight walk to the lead batsman Rough, but he prevented the crisis by turning all three subsequent batters to ground balls.
Kim Kwang-hyun caught 12 ground balls today (6th).
The St.Louis batting battled Jack Littel, the San Francisco bullpen, in the early eighth inning to score one more point.
Nolan Errana made a 3-0 by hitting a right-handed hit in the first and second two-outs in the beginning of the 8th inning.
In the bottom of the 8th, St. Louis bullpen Giovani Gallegos hit a solo home run by Alex Dickerson, but St. Louis ran 5-1 as the batting line added two more points in the early ninth from Harrison Bader's just-time hit and Jose Rondon's sacrifice fly.
St. Louis closeer Alex Reyes was shaken by conceding two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but he did not allow a comeback to San Francisco and made 21 saves of the season.
Kim Kwang-hyun, who played as a starting pitcher for St. Louis for two consecutive years, also broke 100 major league innings in today's game.
He is averaging 105⅓ innings in 22 regular season games.
Kim Kwang-hyeon, who also appeared as a ninth batter, remained silent with no hits in two at-bats at bat, and his batting average for the season fell further to 0.111.
(Photo = Getty Images Korea)