Karachi in Second Place after Ten Gamesby Hasan Khan, Sports Editor (Karachi Dawn)13 April 2105As Spring Training ground to a close, Karachi added another relief pitcher to its roster:
Jin-suk Kim joined the Karachi bullpen after coming over in a last-minute deal with the Florida Hurricanes in which Karachi gave up prospect first baseman
Ultac Shariff and prospect relief pitcher
Candrabali Malavika. Kim is 30 and provides immediate help for the Falcon bullpen with his fastball and slider which he can bring in at 96-98 mph. His debut in the regular season was unfortunately a disaster – on Opening Day, April 3rd, he came in to pitch the ninth inning with the Falcons leading Rome 13-4. He faced five batters which resulted, in order, in a single, a two-run-homer, a strikeout, a single, and a double.
Dermott Baldwin came on to get the final two outs in the 13-7 win. That left Kim sitting with a statistically embarrassing ERA of 108.00.
Karachi took two out of three from Rome in the three-day season-opening home stand. After that the Falcons departed on what will end up being a fourteen games in fourteen days road trip. In the first stop, Seoul, Karachi won the first two games and then dropped two for a split. In Singapore, our locals again won the first two but failed to win the final game for a sweep. Mumbai is next followed by London before the team returns home against Scotland on the 21st.
Not too surprisingly, the Falcons lead the Intercontinental League in on base percentage, home runs, runs, extra base hits, and a few other categories. Alas, they are eighth or worse in ERA, hits and runs allowed, and opponent batting average.
Konosuke Sanu leads the Falcons in Home runs (4) and RBIs (11). Second baseman
Luo-lang Wang has had the hottest bat – he is hitting .383 and has scored a team leading 11 times.
The most encouraging pitching performance to date has been
Kipchoge Kemboi’s eight inning stint against Rome in which he gave up just four hits while fanning 10 and not allowing a walk. He won his second start as well against Singapore but was far less dominant. Perhaps the best team pitching performance was the 14-inning 4-3 win over Seoul on April 6th.
Abramhu Manyam was less than overwhelming as the starter and left in the fifth trailing 3-2. Karachi tied it in the seventh and then got the winning run in the top of the 14th on an
Atindra Kaisch double and a
Da-xia Yang single. Neither of them had started the game. The bullpen was brilliant on this day as
Sixto Colón,
Wiyoto Susanti,
Jin-suk Kim,
Dermott Baldwin, and
Johão Guioni pitched the last nine innings allowing just 4 hits and no runs. Guioni got the win.
Bottom line: After ten games, the Falcons stand at 6-4 in second place in the Asian Division of the Intercontinental League just one half game behind Seoul. Stay tuned.
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