Doosan's New Pitcher Balazovic, 4⅔ Innings, 1 Run Allowed... Half a Passing Grade
As the number of pitches increases, pitching power decreases and control becomes difficult.
Jordan Balazovic (25), the new foreign pitcher for the professional baseball team Doosan Bears, received a half-passing score in his KBO League debut.
He did his job well up to 80 pitches, but as the number of pitches increased, his pitching power and control deteriorated rapidly.
Balazovic started in the home game against Samsung Lions held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 14th and threw 93 pitches, recording 4⅔ innings, 1 hit, 4 walks, 6 strikeouts, and 1 run. https://bit.ly/outlookindiasports
Balazovic pitched well in the beginning of the game.
The big changeup coming from his 196cm height was powerful.
His rough pitching form also seemed difficult for batters to attack.
He gave only one hit and one walk to the Samsung batting lineup through four innings.
His fastball with a top speed of 156 km/h, slider, and splitter were powerful.
In particular, Samsung batters were helpless against the splitter with an average speed of 142 km/h.
However, Balazovic collapsed abruptly in the fifth inning after exceeding his pitch limit.
Balazovic gave a walk to leadoff hitter Yoon Jeong-bin in the top of the fifth inning with the score 1-0, and also threw three balls to the next batter, Park Byung-ho.
Balazovic seemed to have overcome the crisis by striking out Park Byung-ho on a swing and a miss and then catching Yoon Jung-bin who tried to steal second base.
However, Balazovic allowed consecutive walks to Ryu Ji-hyeok and Jeon Byeong-woo.
The Doosan bench could not wait any longer.
With one out left until the win, Balazovic was replaced by Lee Kyo-hoon.
Lee Kyo-hoon allowed Kim Heon-gon to get on base with a fielder's choice and then gave a push-out walk to Lee Jae-hyun.
This score was recorded as Balazovic's earned run.
Balazovic is not a professional starting pitcher.
He appeared in 23 of the 24 games he appeared in this year in Triple-A, a minor league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, as a bullpen pitcher.
Doosan manager Lee Seung-yuop seemed to have taken this into consideration and announced that he would limit Balazovic's pitch count to 60-80 pitches ahead of the Samsung game. https://paste.toolforge.org/view/e6626aaa
It seems that manager Lee delayed the timing of the pitcher change by one beat as Balazovic continued to pitch well.
