Baseball’s ‘reverse export myth’ Merrill Kelly (35, Arizona Diamondbacks) became the first pitcher in history to win both the Korean Baseball Organization’s (KBO) Korean Series (KS) and Major League Baseball’s (MLB) World Series (WS). Kelly pitched seven innings of three-hit ball, striking out nine and giving up one run (one earned) in a 9-1 victory over the visiting Texas Rangers in Game 2 of the 2023 MLB WS at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, on Monday (Sept. 29).Kelly played for the SK Wyverns (now the SSG Landers) from 2015 to 2018, most notably earning the win in Game 3 for KS in 2018.
After leading SK to the title, Kelly made his big league debut in 2019 after being called up by Arizona. Since then, he’s become a mainstay starter and made it to the WS this year. There aren’t many players who have made it to both the KS and WS .Most of the time, foreign players who played in the WS were pushed out of the big leagues due to poor performance and then played KS in the KBO .Carlos Baerga, who tasted the WS with the Cleveland Indians in 1995, played the KS in 2001 as a substitute foreign player for the Samsung Lions and failed to win .Yasiel Puig, who won the WS with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2017 and 2018, played the SSG and KS last year in a Kiwoom Heroes uniform. He also failed to win a championship ring.
Outfielder Juan Lagares, who joined SSG as an alternate last year, played in KS last year after winning a WS with the New York Mets in 2015.He didn’t win a championship with the Mets, but got a ring with SSG .There are also players who went the other way around and started the Korean Series first and then the World Series. Ryu Hyun-jin was the first Korean to pitch in the WS .Ryu started Games 1 and 4 of the 2006 World Series against Samsung while playing for the Hanwha Eagles, and he started Game 2 of the 2018 World Series against the Boston Red Sox in a Dodgers uniform. Ryu didn’t get the win in either of his two KS starts or in the WS .Kelly became the fifth player to pitch in the final series of the Korean Baseball Organization and the 바카라사이트 only player to win both.