Cardinals' Oh Seung-hwan tosses 1st scoreless outing of season

SEOUL, April 13 (Yonhap) -- St. Louis Cardinals' closer Oh Seung-hwan has finally tossed his first scoreless outing of the season.

Oh threw one shutout inning against the Washington Nationals at Nationals Park in Washington on Wednesday (local time), as the Cardinals won the game 6-1.

Oh took the mound in the bottom of the ninth with his team up 6-1, a day after giving up a run on two doubles in one inning of work.

Daniel Murphy, who drove in that run with a double the previous day, popped out to center leading off the ninth inning this time.

Oh gave up a double to Ryan Zimmerman -- a hanging slider that the Nationals veteran drove to left-center -- but induced back-to-back flyouts to close out the game.

Oh lowered his unseemly ERA from 12.27 to 9.64 in 4 2/3 innings.

Oh has been touched for four extra-base hits, including two home runs, so far in 2017.

He has been in just one save situation -- on the Opening Day against the Chicago Cubs -- and blew that opportunity by giving up a three-run home run in the ninth inning. Oh recorded 19 saves with a 1.92 ERA last year after taking over as the closer in July.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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