NEW YORK -- The pitcher's mound at Yankee Stadium is perhaps 100 feet away from the stands and those three vast decks holding 56,000 screaming fans. As Arizona closer Byung-Hyun Kim crouched on that mound half a world away from his home Thursday night, it must have seemed like the loneliest spot on earth.

	Byung-Hyun Kim crumbled to the ground after giving up Scott Brosius' homer.

It's one thing to blow a save in the World Series. It's another thing to blow saves on consecutive nights in the World Series. It's yet another to blow saves on consecutive nights in the World Series at Yankee Stadium.

And it's still yet another to do all that when you are 22 years old, the only player from your country to ever play in the World Series and correspondents follow you every day of the season to file reports across the ocean to Korea.

Think about pitching in that pressure. And think about failing in the grandest manner. And I still doubt that we can imagine what Kim must have felt on that mound Thursday night after serving up his second game-tying, two-out, two-run, ninth-inning home run in as many nights.

Having given up the game-tying shot to Tino Martinez in the ninth inning and the game-winning homer to Derek Jeter in the 10th inning of Game 4, Kim blew a 2-0 lead in Game 5 when he gave up Scott Brosius' dramatic shot in his team's eventual 3-2, 12-inning loss to the Yankees.

"He's only a baby, just 22 years old," D-Backs first baseman Mark Grace said. "He's got an unbelievable future. You just hope he's OK."

The thing is, Kim shouldn't have been in that position. His teammates could have blown open the game with a timely hit. They were hitless in eight at-bats with runners in scoring position, including in the eighth inning when they couldn't score Tony Womack from third with nobody out.

There is a lot to be said for giving a player a chance to get right back on the horse, but there also is something to be said for doing so when the pitcher is rested and capable of performing at his best level.

And his manager could have decided that using his closer the night after he threw 62 pitches was not the best plan in the world.

Kim wants to be a starter, and he is regarded as a bit of a pitching freak of nature, but the three home runs are proof he threw too many pitches the past two nights. Jeter's game-winner in the 10th was off Kim's 62nd pitch of the night -- that's right, his 62nd. Arizona manager Bob Brenly nonetheless brought him back for the ninth inning 24 hours later. When Yankee Stadium announcer Bob Sheppard introduced him, the crowd broke into a loud, derisive cheer.

Kim gave up a double to Jorge Posada on his third pitch, then retired Shane Spencer on a groundout and struck out Chuck Knoblauch. That put him in the same position he was in during Game 4 -- protecting a two-run lead and one out from putting his team one victory from the world championship.

And then Brosius homered over the left-field fence.

While the Yankees and their fans went nuts, Kim collapsed into a crouch, a baseball fetal position. He appeared as devastated as I've ever seen a pitcher at any level beyond Little League. Grace, Womack and catcher Rod Barajas all went to the mound to comfort him. When the cameras zoomed in for the closeup that was televised around the world, it appeared that he was choking back tears (though Kim later told reporters he did not cry).

Through a translator, Kim also said that he felt physically and mentally strong, and that his arm was not tired before or after the game.

Why would Brenly put a young closer into such a position? Because he desperately wants to win the World Series, because his next two relievers were 42-year-old Mike Morgan, followed by Albie Lopez, who has lost 20 games this year and because he felt Kim was the best pitcher for the situation.

"He's our closer," Brenly said. "I talked to him at length this afternoon, called down to bullpen coach Glen Sherlock and asked how he was warming up and he said his stuff was electric. He is our closer, he wanted the ball in that situation and he made a bad pitch.

"I know there will probably be a lot of differing opinions tomorrow, but like I've said all along, we make our decisions based upon what we see with our eyes. We've been around this club all season long, we know what our guys are capable of doing, what matchups we like, what matchups we don't like. Everything doesn't always work out the way you hope it will."

No, it doesn't. Especially not when you place a young pitcher in a situation where you're asking him to fail. Kim not only threw 77 pitches in two nights, he threw them under the most intense pressure there is in baseball -- in the World Series … against New York … in Yankee Stadium.

There is a lot to be said for giving a player a chance to get right back on the horse, but there also is something to be said for doing so when the pitcher is rested and capable of performing at his best level.

If the Diamondbacks do not rally this weekend -- and despite the losses, they have a good chance to win with Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling starting -- Kim will enter into postseason lore alongside other closers who failed in the postseason, such as Calvin Schiraldi, Mark Wohlers, Donnie Moore and Mitch Williams (who saved only four more games after allowing Joe Carter's Series-winner in 1993). He may do so anyway.

How will Kim respond? As other closers whose careers never recovered from postseason failure? Or as Dennis Eckerlsey did, when he became the game's best closer, a Cy Young winner and an MVP after allowing Kirk Gibson's home run in 1988? And remember, Eckersley probably felt he'd let down only his teammates, not his country.

"The guy could win 25 games, because actually, he wants to be a starter," Morgan said. "We have to pick each other up. No way we can let him hang his head after this. It's up to us older gentlemen to step up."

Kim is young -- he's the youngest reliever to allow a World Series home run since Bob Welch in 1978 -- but we'll see whether that means he's resilient or fragile.

"He has a huge future in this game," Grace said. "Hopefully, his future will be two games this weekend he can save."

We'll see whether Brenly goes to Kim, or to any reliever this weekend (with Johnson and Schilling starting, I doubt it). But suddenly, there is another concern beyond who wins the World Series. Suddenly, there is real concern for a young and promising player's career.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.