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Hong-Chih Kuo (Traditional Chinese: 郭泓志; pinyin: Guō Hóngzhì) (born July 23, 1981 in Tainan City, Taiwan) is a Major League Baseball pitcher with the Los Angeles Dodgers. When Kuo made his debut in 2005, he became the fourth MLB player from Taiwan (after Chin-Feng Chen, Chin-hui Tsao, and Chien-Ming Wang). He throws a four seam fastball anywhere between 88-91 MPH with such late life that right-handed batters find him very difficult to hit. He also throws a hard slider in the mid-80's, a slow curveball and a changeup.

Kuo pitched for Taiwan in the Asian Games and Chinese Taipei in the inaugural World Baseball Classic, allowing three earned runs in two games of work.

Kuo was signed as an Free Agent by the Dodgers on June 19, 1999 but elbow problems prevented him from participating with the team.. he underwent two Tommy John surgeries in 2000 and 2003, respectively.^[1]

It wasn't until 2005 that Kuo was able to pitch again on a consistent basis.. pitching 11 games for the Vero Beach Dodgers and 17 games for the Jacksonville Suns before making his Major League debut on September 2, 2005 against the Colorado Rockies out of the bullpen.

Kuo started 2006 on the Dodgers as a relief pitcher. However, after giving up 8 earned runs on 15 walks in only 13 innings pitched in April, he was sent down to the Dodger's AAA affiliate in Las Vegas. That May and June in AAA he posted a decent 3.75 ERA in hitter's paradise Las Vegas in 12 innings pitched where he struck out 18, though did also walk 8. This was good enough for a call up back the Dodgers in June. Over June and July of 2006, Kuo had a miserable 5.74 ERA in 14.1 IP, though he did strike out 19, unfortunately he also gave up 9 walks.

Back in Vegas for most of July, the Dodgers decided to start Kuo rather than work him out of the bullpen, in hopes that the increased innings would give him a chance to improve his control. There were mixed results at first and his July ERA in Vegas was 5.19, with 17 Ks and 8 BB in 17.1 IP. On his last start of the month he went 5 IP. and did not give up a run while striking out 5. This was his longest appearance in several years. Building on that he posted a stellar 1.14 ERA in 5 August starts, where he struck out 28 and only walked 6 in 23.2 innings pitched.

On September 8, 2006, Kuo made his first start in the major leagues after over 30 relief appearances. He surprised everybody by tossing six shutout innings with 7 strikeouts while leading the Dodgers to a 5-0 victory over the NL-East leading New York Mets. In his next three starts he pitched 6 innings and gave up two earned with six strikeouts and no walks to the Chicago Cubs, then he gave up 5 earned on 5.1 IP with 8 Ks and 2 BB against the Pittsburgh Pirates and then he threw 7 shutout innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks, where he again struck out 8 and walked 2. In the game against the Pirates, he had only given up 2 runs until the fifth when two batters got on and he was asked to intentionally walk a third to load the bases at which time he was relieved by Elmer Dessens, who gave up a grand slam two batters later that scored three more runs charged to Kuo. Despite this, Kuo had a 2.59 ERA in his first 4 starts with the Dodgers in 24.1 IP with 31 Ks and only 7 BB.

A spring training injury kept Kuo from starting the 2007 season in the rotation, but after his injury healed and he spent some time in the bullpen as well as the 51s rotation, Kuo eventually reclaimed his role as a starting pitcher for the Dodgers.

On June 12, 2007, Kuo hit a 412-foot home run in the game and became the first Taiwanese player to hit a home run in a the MLB.^[2]

His home run was the third of a back-to-back-to-backseries that followed home runs from Wilson Betemit and Matt Kemp. He also got his first win of the season at that game.

Kuo and three other Taiwanese players tested positive for banned stimulants before joining the 2006 Asian Games in Doha. The players explained that they had taken cold/pain medications containing a banned substance and due to their innocent situation, all of them were cleared to play in the Asian Games by the Taiwan's Olympic Committee.[1]

1. ^ Plunkett, Bill Dodgers believe Kuo still on course, The Orange County Register, 4/21/2006
2. ^ Gurnick, Ken Kuo adds long ball to long journey, MLB.com, 6/13/2007

• Hong-Chih Kuo at ESPN.com
• Frank's Field of Dreams - Hong-Chih Kuo