Yongchan’s infinite faith has been shaken by a 4-point deficit, and it is now necessary to repay it.
A four-run deficit prevented a save. NC closer Lee Yong-chan once again pitched a gut-wrenching inning. He preserved the win and pitched a scoreless inning, but the anxiety is still there.
NC won the second game of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League postseason semifinals 7-3 at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on April 23.
They took advantage of Kim Kwang-hyun in the first inning. Martin’s RBI double, Kwon Hee-dong’s RBI single to right, and Seo Ho-cheol’s sacrifice fly to right field combined for three runs in the first inning. Two batters later, Park Gun-woo added an RBI single to right to make it 4-0.
The mound tried to stave off SSG’s offense with a beehive strategy of using starters back-to-back. Starting pitcher Song Myung-ki showed signs of anxiety by allowing the leadoff batter to reach base in four consecutive innings, but he held on until the third inning. However, he gave up a two-run homer to Han Dong-min in the fourth and was pulled after three innings and two runs. He walked four (three on strikes and one on a wild pitch).
Choi Sung-young and Lee Jae-hak then took the mound and tried to shut down the SSG bats. Choi Sung-young, who took over from Song Myung-ki, did his job with 1⅔ innings of one-hit, three-strikeout ball, while Lee Jae-hak came in and gave up a solo shot to Han Yoo-seom in the bottom of the sixth. The three starters combined for 5⅔ innings and three runs.
The offense was unable to add another run, leaving the score at 4-3, a slim lead. In the eighth inning, Kim Hyung-jun led off with a solo home run, followed by back-to-back RBI singles by Son As-seop and Park Gun-woo to score three more runs and extend the lead to 7-3. 먹튀검증 In the bottom of the sixth, the 20-hit tandem of Kim Young-gyu and Ryu Jin-wook was activated once again and pitched a scoreless inning. In the ninth inning, Lee Yong-chan took the mound.
He was shaky. In his last seven games, including the last five games of the regular season and two in the postseason, his ERA is a shocking 21.95 (13 runs in 5 1/3 innings). He gave up three runs on three hits and one walk in 1 1/3 innings in the wild-card deciding game against Doosan, and was shaky in Game 1 of the semifinals the day before, allowing a two-run homer in the first inning.
Manager Kang Myung-ho said of Yong-chan’s reappointment, “If you replace a closer with another pitcher now, it doesn’t necessarily mean the result will be good. If we make a change and fail again, I think it will be a case of losing the rationale and not being able to find results, so I’m going to trust Yong-chan more.” “I’ll ask the bullpen coach to listen to the pitches in the bullpen and if he’s not feeling well, I’ll make a decision based on the situation at that time, such as dragging Ryu Jin-wook further back and dealing with Lim Jeong-ho,” he said. Pushing Yong-chan to the end.
Lee took the mound in a more comfortable situation in the ninth inning. It wasn’t a save situation with a four-run lead. After a nine-pitch battle with leadoff hitter Kim Kang-min, he grounded out to shortstop, but Choo Shin-soo singled up the middle. It wasn’t going to be a clean first inning.
But Choi struck out Choi Joo-hwan on a wild pitch to load the bases. Lee Yong-chan couldn’t get the third out easily. After a full-count battle with Choi Jung, he gave up another walk. This put runners on first and second. The center fielder walked Heredia Hanyusum, who induced a grounder to third base to end the game.
Once again, a situation that led to a shaky game flow. The manager has faith in Yong-chan until the end.