Port Coquitlam’s Curtis Taylor struck out five batters and allowed just two runs and four hits in his debut as a starting pitcher for the NC Dinos of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO) League.
But he wasn’t around for the decision as the visiting Doosan Bears charged back for a 9-6 win in the second game of their season-opening series against the Dinos at Changwon NC Park on March 29.
Taylor, 30, signed a one-year, $900,000 contract with the Dinos in December. Since being selected 119th overall of the 2016 Major League Baseball draft, he’d been a part of seven MLB organizations and a team in the Mexican League but had never pitched in a big league game.
Last year, Taylor made 31 appearance, including 24 as the starting pitcher, for the Memphis Redbirds, the AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. He won 10 games, lost four and recorded a 3.21 earned run average with 118 strikeouts.
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When Taylor signed in Korea, NC Dinos general manger Lim Sun-nam said the 6’6” right-hander “can compete with hitters through power and also has the ability to induce weak contact.”
Lim added, “We expect him to play a significant role on NC’s mound this season.”
Lim didn’t know how prophetic those words would be, though, as Taylor’s importance rose immediately when the Dinos’ ace foreign pitcher, Riley Thompson, tore an oblique muscle just prior to the team’s league opener on March 28. He’s expected to miss more than six weeks.
The Dinos subsequently signed veteran pitcher Drew VerHagen to a six-week deal to fill out its allowable contingent of import pitchers.
VerHagen was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 2012 but he also played for the St. Louis Cardinals along with two separate stints with the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters in Japan.
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