Baseball is said to be pitcher’s game, but it’s about enough.
Often, starting pitchers are evaluated as having done their part if they make a quality start (QS, 6 innings or more and 3 earned runs or less). In that sense, the starting lineup of Kiwoom Heroes this season has been playing an active role with 18 quality starts (league 1st) and 5.71 innings per game (league 1st). Ahn Woo-jin 6 times, Eric Yokishi 4 times, Ariel Hurado 4 times, Choi Won-tae 3 times, and Jung Chan-heon 1 time, in order of starting rotation, are fully showing what they expected.
However, at the end of the game on the 6th, Kiwoom is 13-16, 8th in the league. With a batting average of 0.243 (8th in the league), on-base percentage of 0.319 (9th), and slugging percentage of 0.338 (9th), we cannot help but point out the problem of the batting line, which is in the bottom ranks in most hitting indicators. As a result, starting pitchers’ scoring support is also the lowest in the league with 3.48 points. Except for Yokishi, who is supported by 6.43 per appearance, it is often difficult to guarantee victory even after achieving a quality start. In particular, with Choi Won-tae scoring 2.31 points (2nd in the league) and An Woo-jin 2.86 points (5th in the league), Korean pitchers rank in the top 5 in the league when it comes to bad luck.
Poor scoring support falters even a good starting pitcher. The Gocheok SSG game on the 6th was exactly like that. Ahn Woo-jin had a power struggle to catch 6 strikeouts until the 3rd inning. However, Kiwoom’s batting line also collapsed like Yang Chu-poong, who became an ace in the opponent’s selection.
Then, An Woo-jin, who seemed impregnable, began to falter. In the fourth inning, he allowed consecutive hits to Choi Joo-hwan and Choi Jeong, and in the fifth, he allowed a long hit to Park Seong-han, conceding a run. Park Seong-han reached third base with Choi Hang’s bunt and stepped on the home plate with An Woo-jin’s wild throw. In the 6th inning, Joo-Hwan Choi’s lightning-fast home run allowed him to score 2 runs step by step. It was in contrast to Kiwoom, who only managed to make up for one point with a disappointing base run at the bottom of the 7th inning with two bases loaded.
Thanks to this, Park Jong-hoon achieved the season’s first quality start plus (more than 7 innings and less than 3 ERA) and his first win at the same time, significantly lowering his ERA from 5.57 to 4.50. In this way, it is not the first time or two that opponent pitchers perform as well as the first starter when meeting Kiwoom this season.
Kiwoom is also working hard to revive the sluggish lineup, but it is not easy. Veteran Lee Won-seok was recruited through a trade, and hitters with good batting conditions were actively employed in the Futures League. However, in the end, the key is to recover the sense of hitting for Lee Jung-hoo, the center hitter. Last season had ups and downs as well, but Lee Jung-hoo and Yasiel Puig were the focal points in the cleanup, so I was able to adjust my batting order with peace of mind.메이저사이트
Lee Jung-hoo, who declared a major league challenge after finishing this season, modified his batting form to increase his slugging power. With a batting average of 0.224, 3 home runs and 14 RBIs, an on-base percentage of 0.325 and a slugging percentage of 0.346, the effect is still insignificant. However, even if there was a brief slump over the past 6 seasons, Kiwoom is waiting and believing because he was a byword for persistence, eventually finishing the season with a batting average of 30%.
Director Kiwoom Hong Won-ki said, “I don’t think there is an ideal batting order yet. So, I worry about it every day.” “For the time being, Lee Jung-hoo gets on base a lot with good batting, and Kim Hye-sung and Russell maintain the attack route with RBIs. I think I have to do it. There will be changes depending on the results, but if Lee Jung-hoo’s batting performance that he is satisfied with comes up, it will be more vital to the team.”