“I need to throw like yesterday”.
Park Se-woong, the “glasses ace” of the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), pitched well in a home game against the Doosan Bears at Munsoo Stadium in Ulsan, South Korea, allowing three runs on four hits (one home run) in eight innings with nine strikeouts. Unfortunately, he was unable to get any offensive support and suffered his seventh loss of the season in Lotte’s 2-3 loss, but it was a pitching performance worthy of applause.
Park threw a five-pitch slider on a 3B-1S count with runners on first and second with Yang Seok-hwan in the first inning before giving up a three-run arch to left field. He tied his career highs for most innings pitched and most strikeouts in a single game this season.
Manager Kim Tae-hyung applauded Park’s performance. Speaking to the media ahead of the Daegu Samsung game on April 19, Kim Tae-hyung said, “He’s been pitching well, but then he broke down at one point, and he needs to pitch like he did yesterday. It was good to see him confident on the mound. It’s one thing to go in confidently when hitting the ball, but it’s another to just go in and swing your arm. You have to show that even if you get hit,” he said.
Kim Tae-hyung also said, “Park Se-woong has a low percentage of body pitches. He needs to utilize it more. He needs to be more confident,” and added, ”He didn’t throw his slider to Yang Seok-hwan with confidence. I think I was thinking too much,” he added.
Lotte remains in eighth place
Lotte remains in eighth place with 39 wins, 47 losses and three draws as of the 19th, but is only 4.5 games behind fifth-place SSG Landers. 토토사이트 추천 Park Se-woong will need to step up as the starting trio alongside ‘foreign one-two punch’ Aaron Wilkerson and Charlie Barnes.
Park, a league-leading right-hander who has been called a regular on the national team, won double-digit games in 2021 and 2022 and was solid last year, posting a 3.45 ERA despite falling one win shy of the 10-win mark.
This season, he is 6-7 with a 5.15 ERA in 19 games, which is a bit disappointing, but he is always capable of rebounding. He is expected to bounce back against Doosan in Ulsan on the 18th. Park’s performance will be essential if Lotte is to fulfill its fall baseball dreams.