SEOUL– What do you do when the fastest-throwing starter in your league offers you a pitch that looks just like a fastball but falls off the table at the last second?
You just shake your head on your way back to the dugout after striking out.
That’s exactly what Na Sung-bum of the Kia Tigers did against Kiwoom Heroes’ starter An Woo-jin in Wednesday’s game. In the top of the second inning at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, An moved ahead 0-2 in the count and then threw Na a forkball.
Na, one of the best hitters in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) so far this season, looked rather clueless when he swung and whiffed on the pitch, clocked at 135 kilometers per hour (kph). An had never thrown a forkball in a game until that moment.
An has been averaging just over 153 kph with his fastball, tops among all qualified starters in the KBO this year, according to the statistics website Statiz. He has touched that elusive 160 kph this season, and has also mixed in a slider, a curve and a changeup en route to a 9-4 record and a 2.17 ERA, third-lowest in the league, in 15 starts. An also ranks second in the KBO with 105 strikeouts in 95 1/3 innings.
The 22-year-old right-hander has now begun to experiment with the forkball, which he learned from pitching coach Song Shin-young over the weekend.
An only threw one other forkball on Wednesday — a 141 kph offering against Choi Hyoung-woo to start the top fifth, while also ahead 0-2 in the count. Choi grounded out to third base.
The plan for now is to only throw forkballs with two strikes, ideally at 0-2 or 1-2, against left-handed sluggers like Na and Choi.
And once An gets more comfortable with the new pitch, that’s even more bad news for the rest of the league.
“I wanted to give this pitch a try against lefties with some power, when I was ahead in the count,” An said after carrying the team to a 1-0 win. He threw seven shutout innings for his fourth scoreless start of 2022.
“I struck out Sung-bum because I threw the pitch exactly where I intended to,” An continued. “But against Choi Hyoung-woo, I left it in the middle of the strike zone. I got away with that one.”
An said he has been trying to pick the brains of teammates who feature forkball and Song, the pitching coach, has been keeping a close eye on An’s bullpen sessions in between starts.
“I’ve always found it amazing that a pitch could drop off like that just in front of the plate,” An said of his decision to add forkball to his arsenal. “I felt it could help me get more swings and misses.”
Prior to the game, An’s manager, Hong Won-ki, pointed out that his prized right-hander shouldn’t be relying on his high velocity all the time. Hong added An should learn from other great pitchers in the league, including the opposing starter on Wednesday, Yang Hyeon-jong, and figure out how to keep hitters off balance by changing speeds.
When informed of the pregame comments, An said, “Obviously, I want to continue to get better. I will try to do what he wants me to do.”
Hong, showing some tough love, said he wasn’t all too pleased with An’s in-season experiment with the forkball.
“It’s risky to try to add a new pitch during the season,” Hong said prior to Thursday’s game. “I think there is more to lose than to gain. It’s not appropriate to start throwing a new pitch in the middle of the season. He’d be better off working on it during the offseason and spring training.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency