Won Tae-in (Samsung) showed off a clean, perfect pitch in the first game of this year’s demonstration game, and cleaned up the aftermath of the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC).
Won Tae-in got on the mound at the bottom of the 4th inning against Kiwoom at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 23rd and blocked 4 innings with no hits and no runs. While he threw 44 pitches against 12 batters, he gave up no hits or walks and struck out five while perfectly blocking them. The highest speed of the fastball reached 148 km/h. Won Tae-in planned to throw about 50 pitches in 3 innings that day, but the number of pitches was only 34 until the 6th inning, after 3 innings, so he went to the mound in the 7th inning, the 4th inning.
In particular, the only time the batted ball went out of the infield and into the outfield was only once when Kiwoom foreign hitter Addison Russell allowed a fly ball in right field. Of the remaining 11 outs, there were 5 strikeouts and 6 grounders. He also won a confrontation with Lee Jeong-hoo, the best hitter in the KBO league and who played together in the WBC. In the 5th inning, against Lee Jeong-hoo, who was the lead batter, he broke the balance of the batting with a changeup and treated it as a powerless ground ball to first base.
Won Tae-in is scheduled to start in Daegu on the 28th in an exhibition game against Hanwha. Manager Park Jin-man said, “Won Tae-in will start the season with 3 starts, but we will look at his physical condition and adjust the timing of his first appearance in the regular season.”
This is Won Tae-in’s first appearance in an exhibition match. He took the mound (4.1 innings) in 3 out of 4 WBC matches played by Korea as a relief pitcher rather than a starter, so he needed some rest. He also has to adapt to the official ball. Won Tae-in said, “The WBC and KBO official balls are a little different, so we are adapting to the league official ball again. Today, the changeup used to fall out of hand,” he said. “A good pitch like today should come out in the regular season… ”he laughed.
On the other hand, Hyo-Jong Kang (21), the “Young Gun” of LG, raised his chances of joining the starting rotation by fighting again. Kang Hyo-jong started the mound in an exhibition game against KT held at KT Wiz Park in Suwon that day and gave up 1 run in 4 innings (3 hits, 1 walk, 1 walk). In the match against Samsung on the 16th, 3 scoreless innings (2 hits, 1 walk) followed by two consecutive good pitches.
LG plans to set up a starting rotation this season with △Casey Kelly △Adam Plutko △Yunshik Kim △Minho Lee, and Hyojong Kang and others are competing for one spot in the remaining five starters. Manager Yeom Gyeong-yeop said,메이저사이트 “He has a good balance and is a pitcher with a good curve. I have high expectations that he will show a good figure this year.” In fact, Kang Hyo-jong struck out three balls in the first inning against Kang Baek-ho, who was in good batting condition in the WBC, and the third pitch was a curveball.
Kang Hyo-jong, who joined in the first nomination in 2021, started in one game on the first team stage last year and won 1 win (2 runs in 5 innings).