SEOUL-- There are late bloomers, and then there is Baek Jung-hyun, starter for the Samsung Lions who has come out of nowhere to take the ERA lead in South Korean baseball this year -- and doing it in his 15th season in pro ball at age 34.

The left-hander's latest gem came Wednesday, when he tossed six shutout innings against the Hanwha Eagles in a 6-2 victory. Baek struck out 11 to match his career high, while extending his scoreless streak to 25 2/3 innings.

Baek is 10-4 for the season and is riding a seven-game winning streak. He had never won more than eight games in a season before, while splitting his time as a starter and a reliever.

Over his past nine starts, Baek has shaved his ERA from 4.08 to 2.17, which puts him in the league lead over Eric Jokisch of the Kiwoom Heroes (2.45). Baek's career ERA before 2021 sat at 4.92.

To call this season a renaissance for Baek would be inaccurate because it would indicate he has been good earlier in his career and now he is pitching on that level again. To put it bluntly, Baek has never been this good at any point in a career that began in 2007.

So how is he getting it done this year?

Baek's average fastball velocity is 137 kph, 5 kph below the league average. But he has been finding other ways to get hitters out.

Against right-handed batters, Baek has been able to paint the outside corner with his changeup and two-seam fastball, and then freeze them with a four-seam fastball on the inside. Facing left-handed batters, Baek often drops a slider into the outside corner.

Even though Baek will never be mistaken for a fireballer, he hasn't been afraid to go inside with his four-seamers. After hitters see a steady diet of changeups early in the count, Baek's fastballs can feel much faster than their actual velocity. He can also change the eye level of the hitters with four-seamers high in the zone. Anxious batters behind in the count have offered at those pitches and ended up looking foolish for doing so.

The early part of this season played out just like most other seasons in Baek's past. He was 4-4 with a 4.08 ERA, a perfectly pedestrian record for a pitcher who had been perfectly ordinary for more than a decade.

Since June, though, Baek has been a completely different pitcher. He has made nine starts since that point and has kept opponents scoreless in six of them. He has been charged with a grand total of four earned runs in 57 1/3 innings in that span. Compare that to 21 earned runs in his first 46 1/3 innings of the season.

During his current hot streak, Baek has been particularly effective with men in scoring position. Since June 1, Baek has faced 32 batters with runners in scoring position and has allowed just two hits, both of them singles.

Baek said he has been trying to sharpen his breaking pitches and the work is paying dividends now.

"I always felt I needed secondary pitches to complement my fastball. And since the end of last season, I've been thinking long and hard about the importance of command," Baek said. "And I've been paying extra attention to the command of my breaking pitches, and I think it has paid off so far."

As for reaching the personal milestone of 10 wins, Baek didn't come away feeling the 10th victory was any different than other wins this season.

"I've needed help from my defense to get to this point," Baek said. "When I was trying so hard to get to 10 wins, I never made it. And this year, I haven't been thinking much about it and I ended up with 10 wins. It doesn't feel so important to me anymore."

Baek's manager, Huh Sam-young, said the left-hander has become more consistent with his delivery and release points for his pitches, which in turn has allowed the pitcher to throw different pitches with equally excellent command.

Baek's catcher Kang Min-ho echoed that view.

"This year, he's been able to mix in his four-seamers and two-seamers very effectively," Kang said. "He used to be all over the place. But now, he's reached a point where he can put pitches exactly where he wants to."

Baek has picked the perfect time to have such an outstanding season, as he's poised to hit free agency for the first time in his career this offseason. Despite his advanced age, Baek, who is making 255 million won (US$216,860), is expected to get paid serious money.

Now, time for some rain on Baek's parade.

ERA doesn't get much love in baseball today, as new-age statistical analyses have exposed its flaws as a measure of pitchers' performances. This is where fielding independent pitching (FIP) can come in. In an ERA-like number, FIP focuses on events that pitchers can control -- strikeouts, unintentional walks, hit-by-pitches and home runs -- but not the defense behind them.

An ERA that's higher than FIP generally means the pitcher has been unlucky, but his ERA will eventually improve. On the flip side, an ERA that comes out lower than FIP means the pitcher has been fortunate, either due to some strong defense or lucky bounces, and his ERA may regress to the mean over time.

Baek's FIP of 4.56, which is 2.40 points higher than his ERA, is alarming. No pitcher ranked in the top 10 in ERA has as large a gap between the two numbers.

But Baek isn't caught up in those numbers. He said he just wants to enjoy the ride while it lasts.

"My only wish is to stay healthy and to keep helping the team win."

Source: Yonhap News Agency