“That’s not 85 in three innings, is it?”
SSG Landers, who were in first place, dropped to second and were chasing first place. Then they dropped to third, and now they’re down to fifth. The three-game gap between them and the second-place KT Wiz may not seem like much, but considering that it’s the end of the season, it’s like a one-game, one-game final.
The collapse on the mound is especially disappointing. The bullpen has been overloaded as the starting battle has been difficult. On top of that, Seo Jin-yong, who has been a stalwart closer, has been blowing blown saves lately.
SSG fell behind 0-2 in the away game against KT at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on the 9th, scoring five runs in the top of the third inning to come back, but gave up another four runs in the bottom of the third inning to fall behind, and ended the game with a narrow 8-8 draw. The team had a few chances to come back in the end, but the biggest disappointment was that starter Oh Won-seok was pulled early after giving up six runs on seven hits and four walks in three innings.
SSG coach Kim Won-hyung’s biggest regret was the walks. Too many balls. “Yesterday, Oh Won-seok didn’t catch the count. After two strikes, it’s a battle with the opponent, but until you make two strikes, you have to trust your pitches.” “Even if you get hit, if you get hit by three pitches, you won’t have 85 pitches in three innings. You can break it up with 60 pitches. Throwing 85 pitches is a problem,” he said.
Overall, the SSG pitchers’ strikeouts were a problem.
“Our bullpen was criticized from the beginning of the season for being weak,” Kim said. “We were criticized for having a weak bullpen from the beginning of the season,” he said, “but we’ve been doing a great job of shutting them down, and the 토토사이트 next pitchers have been doing a great job of shutting them down. That was always a concern, but in the second half of the season, it became a challenge when it didn’t work out.”
SSG leads the league in strikeouts per nine innings this season with 4.43. The lowest is KT at 2.81. SSG also has the most pitches per inning with 18.0. KT has the least at 16.2. This means that the pitchers throw a lot of strikes.
You have to win, and winning is the best way to do that. “I’ve believed so far, so I have to believe in the future. I will believe in our players,” he said, adding, “It’s obviously difficult, but if we win, it’s nothing. We can forget about it and move on.”
On the day, SSG had a rough start as starter Kirk McCarty gave up five runs on eight hits with five strikeouts in five innings. However, Song Young-jin and Ko Hyo-joon pitched one inning each with only one strikeout and no walks to keep the game close, and in the top of the ninth inning, Choi Jung-jeong’s RBI single and Park Sung-sung’s two-run double gave SSG a 6-5 victory.