A fast ball? It was just one. Roberts' reason for Kim Hye-sung's replacement, Morehorn threw more breaking balls

Jun 11, 2025

A fast ball? It was just one. Roberts' reason for Kim Hye-sung's replacement, Morehorn threw more breaking balls
"Adrian Morehorn's fast restraint made it difficult for Kim to deal with it."

This is why LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaced Kim Hye-sung, who he said himself after the match against San Diego, with a pinch hitter.

It sounds plausible at first glance. However, if you compare the actual situation with statistics, it is more like a very sloppy excuse. It can only be said that Roberts still does not grasp Kim Hye-sung well or is obsessed with prejudice and does not grasp the value of Kim Hye-sung properly.



A fast ball? It was just one. Roberts' reason for Kim Hye-sung's replacement, Morehorn threw more breaking balls
"Adrian Morehorn's fast restraint made it difficult for Kim to deal with it."

This is why LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaced Kim Hye-sung, who he said himself after the match against San Diego, with a pinch hitter.

It sounds plausible at first glance. However, if you compare the actual situation with statistics, it is more like a very sloppy excuse. It can only be said that Roberts still does not grasp Kim Hye-sung well or is obsessed with prejudice and does not grasp the value of Kim Hye-sung properly.
"I thought it would be difficult for Kim Hye-sung to deal with Adrian Morehorn because of his fast arrest."

This is why LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts replaced Kim Hye-sung, who he said directly after the match against San Diego, as a substitute.

At first glance, it sounds plausible. However, if you compare the actual situation with statistics, it is more like a very sloppy excuse. It can only be said that Roberts still does not grasp Kim Hye-sung well or is obsessed with prejudice and does not grasp the value of Kim Hye-sung properly. Let's look back on the game.




The Los Angeles Dodgers played the first game of three consecutive away games against their home team, the San Diego Padres, at Petco Park in San Diego, California on the 10th (Korea time). On this day, Kim Hye-sung was listed in the starting lineup as the ninth center fielder. It was Kim Hye-sung's third consecutive start, who has maintained the hottest hitting sense in the team recently.

Although the sample was small, Kim Hye-sung had a batting average of 0.414 (24 hits in 58 at-bats) before the game. As San Diego's starter happened to be right-hander Nick Pivetta, Kim Hye-sung's start seemed almost like a scheduled step.

A fast ball? It was just one. Roberts' reason for Kim Hye-sung's replacement, Morehorn threw more breaking balls
Kim Hye-sung, who was struggling with his first infield fly ball (2nd inning) and strikeout his second at-bat (3rd inning), played a decisive role in the game in his third at-bat. When the Dodgers was losing 5-6 with two outs and a runner on second base in the top of the fifth inning, San Diego left-handed bullpen pitcher Yuki Matsui hit a timely double to right to tie the score at 6-6. It can be seen that the tying hit was made by an unexpected decision.




In fact, Robert is a believer in a thorough platoon system. So, even though Kim Hye-sung was swinging a hard hit in the .400 range after the big league call-up, he skipped the game against a left-handed pitcher. If the opponent's starter is left-handed, he or she will be on the bench or replaced with a pinch hitter when a left-handed pitcher comes out. Therefore, there was a possibility that Kim Hye-sung could put in a pinch hitter at bat in the top of the fifth inning.

However, Roberts did not move and let Kim Hye-sung play against Matsui. The result was a huge success. Kim Hye-sung showed Roberts that he is not weak against left-handed pitchers with his skills. Roberts seemed to finally realize how to use Kim Hye-sung.

However, Roberts' stubbornness has not changed at all. There was a controversial scene in the top of the eighth inning.




A fast ball? It was just one. Roberts' reason for Kim Hye-sung's replacement, Morehorn threw more breaking balls
When Kim Hye-sung came in as a pinch hitter after San Diego changed the pitcher to a left-hander after one out in the top of the eighth inning, Shohei Ohtani patted his hip and comforted him. Photo = MLB.TV Capture
Attack in the top of the eighth inning with a 6-6. The San Diego bench moved first after leadoff hitter Tommy Edman grounded out to second base. He replaced the pitcher with left-handed bullpen pitcher Adrian Morehorn during Kim Hye-sung's at-bat. Roberts then hurriedly called in Kim Hye-sung, who was about to go to the plate, and then put right-handed pinch hitter Kique Hernandez.

Kim Hye-sung closed his mouth and went back to the dugout. Shohei Ohtani, who was in the waiting at-bat, comforted Kim Hye-sung by tapping his hip. It was a rare scene. And Hernandez, who came out as a pinch hitter, retired in vain after four pitches by striking out swinging. Roberts' pinch-hitting operation failed.

Roberts, who won 8-7 after extra time on the day, responded to Kim Hye-sung's replacement in the eighth inning, saying, `Because Morehorn's speed is fast.' It's not wrong, but it can't be an accurate answer. There are two reasons.

A fast ball? It was just one. Roberts' reason for Kim Hye-sung's replacement, Morehorn threw more breaking balls
San Diego left-hander bullpen pitcher Adrian Morehorn is delighted after finishing the inning without losing a point in the top of the eighth inning at home against the Los Angeles Dodgers on the 10th.

One is because of Morehorn's pitching pattern on the day. Morehorn actually throws a huge fastball. On this day, the maximum speed was 97.8 miles (about 157.4 kilometers per hour). However, this does not mean that he mainly pitched fastballs. I threw a lot of sliders in the late 80s and changeups of about 90 miles.

For Hernandez, who even came out as Kim Hye-sung's pinch hitter, he threw three out of four balls with 88-90-mile breaking balls (one slider and two changeups). There was only one sinker with a speed of 96.4 miles (about 155 kilometers per hour) on the second pitch.

This pitching pattern continued similarly to the next hitters. Of the five-ball games against Ohtani, there were two fastballs. Three threw sliders in the late 80-mile range. In addition, all the fastballs were out of the strike zone. After sending Mookie Betts out on four pitches on purpose, he played a six-ball match against Freddie Freeman, mixing the breaking ball (slider) and the fastball in half. Two of the three fastballs went out of the strike zone.

A fast ball? It was just one. Roberts' reason for Kim Hye-sung's replacement, Morehorn threw more breaking balls
Morehorn threw a total of 15 pitches in the top of the eighth inning, of which six were fastballs, with only 40% of the pitches. And four of the six fastballs were stuck outside the zone. With this, I thought it would be difficult for Kim Hye-sung to deal with Morehorn's fastballRoberts' words are not convincing. This is because the day after tomorrow's game was not a fastball.

The second reason why Roberts' excuse could be neutralized is the record.

Kim Hye-sung's batting average against fastball this season is 0.414 (12 hits in 29 times at bat). In particular, he had a batting average of 0.273 (3 hits in 11 at-bats) on fastballs over 95 miles, and posted a whopping .500 (1 hit in 2 at-bats) on fastballs over 97 miles.

Although there are few samples, it means that Kim Hye-sung is also hitting the fastballs of big league pitchers quite well so far. It is proven by figures that Roberts was concerned for no reason.

A fast ball? It was just one. Roberts' reason for Kim Hye-sung's replacement, Morehorn threw more breaking balls
In addition, Kim Hye-sung has three hits in three at-bats against left-handed pitchers, including a timely double against Matsui. Two of them were long balls (homerun, double). Roberts just didn't give him a chance because of his own prejudice, but in fact, Kim Hye-sung didn't shrink at all when he met a left-handed pitcher.

In the end, Roberts' explanation of the reason for the replacement of Kim Hye-sung does not match the contents of the game, nor does it match the statistics.

Rather, it is like Roberts confessing to himself that he is not using the player properly due to terrible prejudice. If Kim Hye-sung fails to break Roberts' prejudice with her skills, she will have no choice but to continue to be a scapegoat in the future.



Reporter Lee Won-man wman@sportschosun.com



This article was translated by Naver AI translator.