Reckless! PIT Bae Ji-hwan, just like this, bouncing → 3K on the day before going to the minor league, and this time, the pinch runner → failed to score due to the failure of stealing. I'm going to lose all my major opportunities

Mar 31, 2025

Hardness and recklessness are wasting all the hard-won major league opportunities. Pittsburgh Pirates Bae Ji-hwan (26) has harmed his team with another disappointing play. At this rate, it will be difficult to avoid notification to the minor leagues.

Bad Ji-hwan, who was the first starter in the game on the 30th and had no hits in four at-bats and struck out three, came out as a pinch runner after two outs in the top of the eighth inning against Miami on the 31st and ended the inning by failing to steal third base. Bae Ji-hwan getting tagged out at third base.

His impatience and recklessness are wasting all the major league opportunities he's had. Pittsburgh Pirates Bae Ji-hwan (26) has harmed his team with another disappointing play. At this rate, it will be difficult to avoid notification to the minor leagues.

Bae Ji-hwan appeared as a pinch runner in the top of the eighth inning in the 2025 Major League Baseball (MLB) regular league away game against the Miami Marlins at Rondipo Park in Miami, Florida, USA early on the 31st (Korea time).

Bae Ji-hwan, who started as the first center fielder against Miami the previous day, had an extremely sluggish hit, including no hits in four at-bats and three strikeouts. As a result, he was pushed back to the bench in the game. Then, he got a chance to play as a pinch runner in the top of the eighth inning when the score was 2-2.

Pittsburgh led 2-1 and allowed a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, facing 2-2. Two outs later, when Andrew McCutchen drew a walk, the Pittsburgh bench put in Bae Ji-hwan.

It was an opportunity to show fast speed, which is almost his only strength. The Pittsburgh bench was also judged to be a very important timing in terms of the flow of the game, and Bae Ji-hwan was sent out. The intention is to take advantage of a small opportunity at speed.

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Miami pitcher Calvin Porcher, who just happened to take the mound in the top of the eighth inning and caught both batters with infield ground balls, was also suddenly shaken. While playing a full-count game to McCutchen, he gave up a walk in the sixth pitch with an automatic ball decision due to a violation of pitching time, and gave up four pitches to the follow-up hitter Zach Swinsky after throwing three balls in a row in the beginning.

In the end, Bae Ji-hwan advanced to second base, and Pittsburgh's scoring chance was created. It was two outs, but the opposing pitcher was greatly agitated and the runner on second base was Bae Ji-hwan, who had the team's best running speed. It's the timing when the flow turned toward Pittsburgh. If you score even one point at the end of the game, you can get one step closer to winning.

However, the Pittsburgh bench's expectations were dashed by Bae Ji-hwan's failure to steal a base. Andy Rodriguez came to the plate with two outs and runners on first and second bases. Porcher threw the first and second pitches on consecutive curves. Strike, foul, and ball count threw a 140km sweeper on the third pitch of 0B2S, but it was thrown too low and became a one-bound.

At this time, second baseman Bae Ji-hwan ran to third base. First baseman Swinsky didn't move. Porcher's pitch bounced one-bound, but he didn't fall behind the catcher. A bit of an ambiguous timing to run to third base. But Bae Ji-hwan believed too much in his speed.

At first, a safe declaration came out. But the Miami bench asked for a video review. As a result of the reading, the decision was changed to tag out. In the end, Pittsburgh ended its attack in vain in the top of the eighth inning.

Miami, which overcame the crisis of losing points, won 3-2 in the bottom of the ninth inning on a walk-off wild pitch. With this, Pittsburgh recorded three walk-off losses in its opening four consecutive away games against Miami, recording a sluggish start of 1-3.

One-bound pitching is certainly an opportunity to try to steal. However, the situation of the game and the opponent's infield movement after pitching must be considered first. On this day, Porcher threw a one-bound pitch, but catcher Nick Portes blocked it with his body. It wasn't a good timing to play third base.

In addition, it is difficult to say that the probability of scoring increases significantly even if he succeeds in stealing third base. According to Major League statistics, the expected scoring probabilities in the first and second bases with two outs and the first and third bases with two outs are 0.436 and 0.481, respectively. In other words, even if the steal is successful, the probability of scoring does not increase by less than 5%. Considering the statistical probability of a stolen base failure, Bae Ji-hwan's steal to third base was clearly a rash attempt. First baseman Swinsky didn't move.

Bae Ji-hwan dramatically joined the Major League's opening entry by showing better-than-expected batting skills in the exhibition game. I went in with my rival Swinsky. However, there is already a big difference in performance.

Bae Ji-hwan got his first chance to start the game on the 30th, but he never got on base with only three strikeouts. In addition, he played a hasty game with an average of less than four pitches (3-4-3-5 pitches) in four at-bats, only resulting in futile results. In the end, Bae lost his chance to start again and waited on the bench. And he also showed disappointing results in the opportunity to run against him.

On the other hand, Swinsky started the day after the previous day (1 hit, 2 walks and 1 RBI in 5 times at bat) and recorded 1 hit and 1 walk in 3 times at bat. This is compared to Bae Ji-hwan. As the bench's disappointment accumulates, the opportunity given to Bae Ji-hwan disappears. If this atmosphere continues, all that remains is a notification to the minor league. Bae Ji-hwan may need to remain more cautious.

This article was translated by Naver AI translator.