Left-handed pitcher Kyle Hart (33), who returned to Major League Baseball after winning the Korean version of the Cy Young Award, continues his competition for the fifth starter spot after overcoming a sudden cold and body aches.

Hart made his first official spring training start on Feb. 17 (Korea time) at Peoria Stadium in Peoria, Arizona, during a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, allowing 5 hits (1 home run), 2 walks, 3 strikeouts, and 2 earned runs over 3 innings. The team lost 4-5, resulting in Hart taking the loss.

This was Hart's first official appearance in spring training. He started against the Milwaukee Brewers on Feb. 8, pitching 2 scoreless innings, but it was not recorded officially due to rain causing a no-game. Nine days later, he stepped onto the spring training mound.

In the meantime, Hart suffered from the flu and body aches. According to MLB.com, Hart contracted the flu after the Feb. 8 game against Milwaukee and had to take a break to recover. Just when he needed to put in maximum effort for the fifth starter competition, he was sidelined for some time due to a sudden cold and body aches.

Hart remarked, "If someone had told me a few days ago that I would fully recover, I would have been surprised. My current condition is really good," and added, "I felt really bad for two days. Considering the competitive situation in camp, being sidelined due to body aches was very disappointing. Fortunately, the trainers provided me with everything I needed, and I was able to recover this week."

Hart had also suffered from a cold while with the NC Dinos last year. After winning against Kiwoom on Jul. 31 last year, he contracted a cold and had a break of just over 3 weeks before returning for the KIA game on Aug. 23. Initially, it was expected he would skip a rotation, but he showed symptoms of dehydration due to aftereffects of the cold and received intravenous fluids.

However, Hart dominated last year with 26 games (157 innings), 13 wins, 3 losses, an earned run average of 2.69, 182 strikeouts, and a WHIP of 1.03, while yielding a batting average against of .215. He ranked first in strikeouts, WHIP, and batting average against, second in earned run average, and third in wins, receiving the Golden Glove in the institutional sector for pitchers in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). The Korean version of the Cy Young Award, the Choi Dong-won Award, was also awarded to Hart. Using this as a stepping stone, he signed a one-year, guaranteed contract worth $1.5 million with the San Diego Padres and returned to Major League Baseball with a maximum of $8.5 million over two years.

San Diego, which has confirmed its top four starters as Dylan Cease, Michael King, Yu Darvish, and Nick Pivetta, is competing with Randy Vasquez and Steven Colek for the last fifth starter position, along with Hart. There were concerns that Hart might fall behind in the competition after being absent for over a week due to cold and body aches, but he showed competitiveness with his pitching that day.

In the third inning, he allowed a solo home run to Corbin Carroll, but it was affected by the wind, and Hart's pitches were decent. He threw a total of 59 pitches, reaching a top speed of 92.3 mph (148.5 km/h) and averaging 91.1 mph (146.6 km/h), utilizing a variety of pitches including the four-seam fastball (12), sweeper (17), sinker (11), change-up (10), and slider (9).

MLB.com described, "Hart's stuff looked sharp, especially the sweeper. It is a pitch he began developing last spring training in nearby Tucson." Hart stated, "I sometimes keep it simple. If hitters want to hit something, I try not to throw it. I will throw a lot of what hitters don't want to hit. It will probably change weekly. Today, it seems the opponents weren't hitting the sweeper much, so I threw as many as I could."

Reuben Niebla, San Diego's pitching coach, expressed, "Hart has entered the competition for the fifth starter. He has shown good progress. Next time, if he can manage his pitch count, he should be able to pitch into the 6th inning."

[OSEN = reporter Lee Sang-hak]