‘Former SK’ Kelly, ‘former Doosan’ Flexen and 11K power struggle in the MLB selection match
Kelly boasts of his ‘one-up skill’ to Flexen after Luchinski
Merrill Kelly
Foreign pitchers Merrill Kelly (Arizona Diamondbacks) and Chris Flexen (Colorado Rockies),
who commanded the KBO League of professional baseball,
played a starting matchup in the American Professional Baseball Major League (MLB).
Kelly and Flexen started as starting pitchers for both teams in the 2023 MLB game held at Coors Field in Denver, Colorado, USA on the 15th (Korean time) and were responsible for six innings side by side.
Kelly struck out as many as 11 in 6 innings, giving up 2 runs on 5 hits and 1 walk.
Colorado won the game 6-4 on the back of the concentration of the batting line that broke out late.
Kelly and Flexen did not record a win or loss. 안전놀이터
Kelly played for SK Wyverns (now SSG Landers) from 2015 to 2018 before joining Arizona in 2019.
MLB debut
In 2019, his MLB debut season, he won 13 wins and settled in the big leagues,
since then he has secured a stable place in the starting rotation.
This season, he has been active as Arizona’s ace.
Kelly is 9-5 with a 3.05 ERA, tied for 10th in most wins and 3rd in ERA in the National League.
Wearing a Doosan Bears uniform in 2020, Flexen posted
an average ERA of 3.01 with 8 wins and 4 losses in the regular league,
joined the Seattle Mariners after achieving an outstanding ERA of 1.91 in the postseason.
In his first year with Seattle, he went 14-6 with a 3.61 ERA,
but this year he struggled and was released and signed a minor league contract with Colorado.
Chris Flexen
While Flexen struggled with an average ERA of 7.74 with 1 win and 5 losses this season,
he was responsible for 6 innings that day, providing an opportunity for a turnaround.
On the other hand, it is not the first time that Kelly boasted
a ‘one level’ skill in a starting match with a player from the KBO League.
On May 16, in an away game against the Oakland Athletics,
where Drew Luchinski (former NC Dinos) was selected as the starting pitcher,
he fought back with 4 hits, 9 strikeouts and 2 runs (1 earned run)
in 7 innings and became the winning pitcher.
At the time, Luchinski was sluggish with 5 hits, 5 walks and 5 runs in 3⅔ innings,
was recently out of the season due to a back injury.