The ballparks in Korea are a little smaller than here, but they’re just as loud, and I definitely came away with a lot of experience”. That’s what Merrill Kelly, 35, a right-handed pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball (MLB), said at a press conference on Aug. 8 (KST).At the time, Arizona was facing the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the National League Division Series (NLDS), and American media outlets were asking Kelly if she could handle the overwhelming atmosphere of the postseason and the one-sided support of the crowd.

The question was about Kelly’s experience in the MLB postseason .Kelly smiles as if it’s no problem. “In Korea, there are about 30,000 people in the stadium every postseason, and half of the crowd is singing different chants every time a batter steps up to the plate,” he said. Kelly was fully acclimated to the loud cheering culture .He played for the SK Wyverns (now the SSG Landers) in the KBO from 2015 to 2018, and for four years, he thrived in front of an overwhelmingly supportive Korean baseball fan base. In 2018, he helped SK win the Korean Series.

At the time, Kelly cooked Doosan Bears hitters to the tune of eardrum-shattering cheers from the “Incheon boys .In 2019, Kelly was “reverse-exported” to the United States, where he thrived in Arizona .After going 13-14 with a 4.42 ERA in his first MLB season in 2019, Kelly became a mainstay in the starting rotation and has led Arizona’s mound every season since .He went 13-8 with a 3.37 ERA last year and 12-8 with a 3.29 ERA this year as the ace of the staff .Kelly made his first MLB fall start this year as Arizona advanced to the postseason .In Game 1 of the NLDS against the Dodgers on Aug. 8, he pitched 6 1/3 innings of three-hit ball with two walks and five strikeouts in an 11-2 victory.

Kelly was vastly outclassed in experience by veteran Clayton Kershaw, who started for the Dodgers, but earned praise for his dominant performance .His performance in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) against the Philadelphia Phillies on April 18 was a little less impressive .He pitched well through five innings with two runs before collapsing in the sixth, giving up four runs on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts in 5⅔ innings and taking the loss. With Kelly down, Arizona was on the ropes. After dropping Game 5, Arizona headed into Game 6 with a 2-3 record against their opponents .In a desperate situation where a loss would mean elimination, Kelly took the mound again.

On April 24, Kelly pitched to a lopsided crowd of 45,473 fans at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA .He was shaky in the first inning, giving up two walks to put runners on first and second, but he got No. 4 hitter Alec Bomb and No. 5 hitter Bryson Stott to pop out and an infield grounder to end the frame. Down 3-0 in the second, he looked shaky, giving up two hits and a run .But he regained his confidence by striking out J.T. Realmuto on a wild pitch with two outs in the third, then retired the side in order in the fourth and fifth to end the Phillies’ rally.

“Honestly, I don’t think anybody expected us to beat the Milwaukee Brewers in the Wild Card Series, I don’t think anybody expected us to beat the Dodgers in the NLDS, and I don’t think anybody expected us to take the NLCS to Game 7,” Kelly said in his postgame press conference. “We’ve come this far, and we’re going to do everything in our power to win Game 7 tomorrow. “If Arizona wins Game 7, Kelly will play in his dream World Series. The last time Arizona 카지노사이트 advanced to the World Series was in 2001, when Byung-hyun Kim played.