‘KK’ returns from injured list to post dominant outing for St. Louis Cardinals
In different times, perhaps less capital-D Difficult, a clutch of fans may be pouring into stands in Busch Stadium and around the country to celebrate the rise of Kwang Hyunmania, as Cardinals rookie lefthander Kwang Hyun Kim ramps up a season which rivals that which Fernando Valenzuela turned in to sweep up two nations in excitement in 1981.
Valenzuela, then 19, was a true rookie. Kim, 32, has a dozen years of experience in the Korean Baseball Organization on which he can lean. His challenges, though, more than account for the experience discrepancy between the two.
Fresh off a stint on the injured list due to a renal infarction, Kim twirled seven shutout innings in Milwaukee on Monday night to lower his season earned run average to 0.63. As a starter, that number is 0.33, and he hasn’t allowed an earned run in 24 consecutive innings pitched.
“Just normal,” Kim said of how he felt on Monday night, through his interpreter, Craig Choi. “Normally followed Yadi’s sign and those well hit balls went direct to the position players. So I am satisfied with my performance today, but unfortunately because our team lost, that’s one thing I’m not satisfied (with).”
To feel normal under these circumstances is certainly abnormal.
Kim has now had three separate instances of circulatory system disruptions during his career. In 2010, he suffered a minor stroke, which has been referred to in some Korean media reports as a cerebral infarction. On Monday, he described having a similar issue in his calf muscle at an unspecified previous date. Treatment calls for the use of strong blood thinners — relatively trivial for most people, but potentially dangerous for a professional athlete.
“Obviously any time you take the field, you put yourself at risk,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said. “But more to the point, (he) needs to avoid taking a ball (off the body). Just has to be something that our medical staff has to be well aware of.”
In traditional National League baseball, without the designated hitter in play, the risk involved with batting may have made a return to the field more challenging. In 2020, Kim only has to dodge comebackers on the mound in order to stay safe.
Or, perhaps he’d be fine either way, as he disagreed with Mozeliak’s assessment.
‘I don’t think it was a risk’
“Personally I don’t think it is a risk because I’m not on a diet and I don’t have to fast,” Kim said. “And as you see today how I pitched, I don’t think it was a risk.”
In an era of Zoom conferences, communication with a person with whom there is a language barrier requires two layers of separation — words to the microphone, microphone to the interpreter, and all the way back through. It can be difficult to parse out true thoughts and feelings.
That degree of difficulty dropped with Kim on Monday. His body language was thoughtful and confident when discussing pitching. It was defiant and firm when discussing his health, and every answer came back around to baseball. The message was clear: he wants to pitch and talk about pitching.
Cardinals hurler in elite company
Given his success this season, it’s hard to argue with that approach.
ESPN Stats & Info said on Monday that Kim’s ERA through five starts is the second best in any pitcher’s first five career starts since 1913, when the leagues officially began keeping track of earned runs.
MLB’s Andrew Simon found that Kim is the first Cardinals pitcher to start four consecutive games of at least five innings pitched with no earned runs allowed since Bob Gibson did it five times in his historic 1968 campaign.
And how often has a National League pitcher made four straight starts of at least five innings, allowing three or fewer hits and no earned runs? According to research firm Stats by STATS, that would be zero. Never happened. Not until Kwang Hyunmania.
Kim still could capture NL rookie of the year
Despite his age, Kim is eligible for the National League Rookie of the Year award. The Cardinals’ compressed schedule will limit his opportunities, as will his stint on the injured list. Even with those restrictions, though, he is making a case through sheer dominance that he’s performing better than any first year player — perhaps any pitcher — in the league.
That performance is occurring despite being largely quarantined in a foreign country in which he has been separated from his wife and two children for going on eight months, adjusting to a new league and lifestyle under the auspices of one of the greatest public health threats in modern world history.
“It’s pretty remarkable,” Cardinals manager Mike Shildt said of Kim’s return. “The timing was not great when (the illness) happened but his timing for return is definitely appreciated.”
During spring training, when communication was simpler, Kim engaged in some limited exchanges in English with reporters — “good morning,” “hello,” “how are you,” and the like. Not since those days in Jupiter had we heard him communicate directly, until he did so on Monday night in an attempt to quell the stream of medical questions.
“Don’t worry,” he said, clearly smiling beneath his mask.
Hard to argue with that.
