The St. Louis Cardinals' South Korean pitcher Oh Seung-hwan tossed a scoreless inning in his Major League Baseball (MLB) debut against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday.

Oh walked two and struck out two in the seventh inning against the host Pittsburgh Pirates at PNC Park in their season opener. The Cardinals lost the game 4-1.

Oh relieved starter Adam Wainwright to start the seventh, with the Cards down 3-0, and faced Matt Joyce as his first major league hitter. Oh threw a 93 mph cutter for a wild pitch and tossed two more balls to fall behind 3-0. Oh eventually walked Joyce on six pitches.

Oh got John Jaso to ground out to second on two pitches, as Joyce moved to second.

The right-hander went to a full count against the next batter, Andrew McCutchen, before walking him on a cutter. It was another battle to a full count facing David Freese, but Oh got him looking on an 83 mph slider for his first big league strikeout.

Oh had his second straight strikeout against Starling Marte, who swung and missed on an 85 mph slider with the count full.

Oh threw 27 pitches, 12 of them for strikes.

Seth Maness took over from Oh in the bottom eighth and gave up a run.

Oh recorded 277 saves over nine seasons in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) to become the league's all-time leader. He collected 80 more saves in two seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) before signing with the Cardinals in January.

The 33-year-old became the fourth South Korean pitcher to have appeared in the KBO, the NPB and the MLB, after Lee Sang-hoon, Koo Dae-sung and Lim Chang-yong.

Oh will serve as a setup man for All-Star closer Trevor Rosenthal. In nine spring training appearances, Oh had a 1.86 ERA in 9 2/3 innings. (Yonhap)