By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
Park Chan-ho is pitching for the Los Angeles Dodgers for the first time in seven years, looking for modest redemption after witnessing his once-promising career turn into a cautionary tale.
It bears further watching whether the 34-year-old right-hander can earn permanent status under new manager Joe Torre as he continues to learn to pitch with a reduced fastball.
Working with a 9-1 lead against the Cincinnati Reds on Monday, Park gave up two runs, each on solo home runs, over three innings in wrapping up what ended as a 9-3 win.
Although this earned Park the first save of his 14-year career, he would have surely preferred to have such a milestone come on a more convincing moment.
Pitching out of the bullpen for Torre, who was often criticized for abusing his relievers during his previous stint with the New York Yankees, Park has managed to hold his own, logging 11 innings on six appearances while posting a decent 3.27 ERA.
However, when taking a deeper look into the numbers, one could make an easy argument that Park was fortunate to avoid further damage on the mound.
In Park's 11 innings this year, he has given up 13 hits and walks, which means that he allowed runners to reach base nearly twice per inning, and opponents have been batting .302 against him.
With him allowing so many runners, it's unusual that all four runs given up by Park this year came off solo shots. And each of those four home runs coming on the road presents a screaming reminder of Park's lifelong inability to pitch outside of Dodger Stadium.
The most alarming statistic for Park, however, is his rapidly shrinking strikeout rate. Park has fanned only three hitters so far this year, which equates to a miniscule 2.45 strikeouts per game. For a pitcher who never had a decent ground-ball ratio, losing the ability to miss bats could end up writing his eulogy from the game.
``He didn't seem right against the Reds," said Song Jae-woo, an analyst for cable sports channel X-Sports who has been calling Park's games for more than a decade.
``He didn't have the zip in his pitches and seemed to tire quite quickly.''
Once a feared flamethrower, Park's fastball now sits around 145kmph, which is more than hittable for major league hitters. That isn't stopping Park from relying on it, as nearly 60 percent of the pitches he threw this year were fastballs, and opponents are having no trouble sending them the other way.
With his fastball fooling nobody, Park is getting less opportunities to throw his curveball, which now may be his best pitch, while relying more on a slider, accounting for more than 20 percent of his pitches, he never had great command of.
Park, who is auditioning for a chance as the team's fifth starter, clearly needs more quality performances. Veteran Esteban Loaiza, a former 21-game winner who seems to have some productive years left in him, and Taiwanese lefty Kuo Hong-chih, a grim reaper to left-handed hitters, currently seem to be ahead of Park in the pecking order.
With injured starter Jason Schmidt expected to rejoin the starting lineup early- to mid-June, Park could end up as the casualty. Kuo, Jonathan Broxton and Scott Proctor are likely to pitch ahead of closer Takashi Saito with Loaiza replacing Park's role as a long reliever and emergency starter.
With hard-throwing reliever Yhency Brazoban waiting for his next big league call up, Park has little margin for error to extend his major league career.