Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Merrill Kelly, who came through the KBO League and emerged as a top starter in the major leagues, looked back on the time he spent in Korea.
Kelly said in an interview after winning Game 2 of the World Series against the Texas Rangers 9-1 held at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, USA on the 29th (Korean time) about his pitching that day (7 innings, 3 hits, 1 home run, 9 strikeouts, 1 run). ) looked back.
“I think it was a matter of executing the plan,” he said. If you think back to the last championship series against Philadelphia, all the balls that were hit were balls that were not thrown as planned. I had done this before, but especially after that game, I focused entirely on throwing as planned. “He paid attention to every single ball,” he said, explaining his secret to good pitching.
He continued, “I thought this ball was the most important ball of the game that day and threw it. “After I threw one ball like that, I thought the same way about the next ball,” he continued.
He, who played for the SK Wyverns in the KBO League for four years from 2015 to 2018, said, “There is a time difference between here and Korea, so when I wake up in the morning, there is a big league game. “My routine was to wake up in the morning, have a cup of coffee, and check the results of the big league games,” he said, adding that he was dreaming of playing in the big leagues even when he was playing in the KBO league.
“I was literally tens of thousands of miles away, but my mindset was always to come back here,” he said, adding that he had been thinking about returning to the big leagues.
About life in the KBO League, “The language barrier was a hindrance, but the people there tried to help me as much as possible. But in the end, what helped me there was my own voice and my own pitching coach,” he said, adding that his own voice was the most helpful.
He said, “It was natural that the horses were completely different here, and the approach to pitching and mechanics was not the same as I saw it. Therefore, there were times when trying to attack the same problem did not produce the desired results. Therefore, I had to work on filtering out information that would be helpful and information that should be discarded,” he said, recalling his life at the time.
That’s how he was able to reach the World Series stage. “No one would have expected me to pitch in the World Series,” he said. For that to happen, many things must work properly. It has to be in the right place, at the right time, and with the right team. There must be good colleagues who can contribute, such as Tommy Pam and Gabby (Gabriel Moreno). He gave credit to his teammates, saying, “It’s not just me, it’s the entire team’s effort.”
On this day, his family came to the stadium to watch him pitch. “It was really special,” he said. He hasn’t seen his grandmother since 2011. “I can’t wait to go and meet her,” she said of her family’s visit to the stadium.짱구카지노 도메인
Last year, he went to see the World Series held in Philadelphia to celebrate his brother Reid’s birthday, and this time he went to the mound in person.
He said, “His brother’s birthday is on Halloween. One day, he sent me a text saying, ‘A pitching appearance in the World Series would be the biggest birthday present I could receive.’ “I’m happy to be able to do that,” he said.