SEOUL– After coming within a strike of throwing a no-hitter, Doosan Bears’ left-hander Ariel Miranda has set his sights on another major accomplishment: winning the pitching Triple Crown as the leader in wins, ERA and strikeouts in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO).
Miranda tossed a complete game shutout against the Kia Tigers on Wednesday at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. He struck out nine and gave up just one hit, a double by Kim Sun-bin on a 0-2 count with two outs in the top of the ninth inning.
Miranda retired the next batter, Choi Hyoung-woo, on a flyout to right field on the very next pitch for his first shutout in the KBO in his first season here.
There have been 14 no-hitters in KBO history, which dates back to 1982, but none since 2019. Miranda settled for the first one-hit shutout in the league since 2015.
Miranda got himself into an even rarer category in the record books: He became just the fourth KBO pitcher to lose a no-hit bid with two outs in the ninth inning.
Miranda improved to 11-4 with a 2.38 ERA. He has 155 strikeouts in 124 2/3 innings.
He has a comfortable lead in the strikeout department, with Ryan Carpenter of the Hanwha Eagles a distant second at 129 strikeouts. Eric Jokisch of the Kiwoom Heroes leads the KBO with 12 victories, and Miranda is tied for second with three Samsung Lions starters: Baek Jung-hyun, Won Tae-in and David Buchanan.
Baek sits atop the ERA leaderboard at 2.26. Baek has only allowed four earned runs in his past five starts, covering 31 2/3 innings, but Miranda has been even more dominant of late.
The Cuban left-hander is working on a 25-inning scoreless streak, a stretch that includes three consecutive starts without a run allowed. Miranda has struck out 21 batters and allowed just seven hits in his past 23 innings.
Only three pitchers have won the Triple Crown in the KBO. Sun Dong-yol did it in 1986, 1989, 1990 and 1991 while pitching for the Haitai Tigers dynasty. Ryu Hyun-jin, currently starting for the Toronto Blue Jays, led the league in wins, ERA and strikeouts as a rookie for the Hanwha Eagles in 2006. He was voted the MVP and the Rookie of the Year that season.
Yoon Suk-min of the Tigers was up next in 2011, a season in which he also won the regular season MVP award.
The closest that a foreign pitcher came to capturing the Triple Crown was 2019, when Josh Lindblom of the Bears finished first in wins and strikeouts but ranked second in ERA.
Source: Yonhap News Agency