Is the aftermath of the 5th World Baseball Classic (WBC) not yet over?
Young-gun pitchers representing the KBO League, who went to Tokyo as members of the national baseball team, struggled in the opening two games of the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’. So-Jun Sohn (22), who was in charge of the KT Wiz starting lineup, and Yoon-Sik Kim (23), who is regarded as the left-handed ace of the LG Twins, were both sluggish in their first start of the season.
On the 2nd, So-Jun Sohn and Yoon-Sik Kim played a먹튀검증 starting match at KT Wiz Park in Suwon. However, both pitchers were ripped early.
Soon after the start of the first inning, Joon Sohn started with 4 consecutive hits and 4 runs. He seemed to pass the 2nd inning smoothly, but in the 3rd he faltered again and gave up an additional run before coming off the mound. The final result was 2.1 innings, 10 hits, 1 walk, 1 strikeout and 9 runs. shocking result. He threw 74 balls, but overall the content was poor, with his speed lower than in the second appearance of the exhibition game.
Kim Yun-shik is also sluggish. After one out in the bottom of the first inning, Kang Baek-ho allowed his first hit, and then Anthony Alford hit a two-run homer in the left middle. Afterwards, he came down after finishing the first inning, but faltered again in the bottom of the second. After allowing lead batter Kim Min-hyeok a right-handed hit, Park Kyung-soo and Kim Sang-soo were followed by walks. The LG bench hastily decided to change pitchers. Yunshik Kim’s final score was 4 hits, 1 home run, 2 walks and 2 runs in 1 inning.
So-Jun Sohn and Yoon-Sik Kim joined the WBC team this year as they grew into young guns representing the KBO League last year. But the results were disappointing. Unlike in the league, he could not maintain his body and pitch to become a starting pitcher. In the end, he participated in the 5th WBC as a bullpen pitcher, but fell short of expectations. After returning home with the national team’s elimination in the first round of the WBC, the team took care of itself and added to the starting rotation normally from the opening two games, but it seems that it is still unable to regain its normal condition.
Meanwhile, the two teams clashed fiercely as the starting pitchers were ripped out early. LG took a huge lead by 9-2 until the beginning of the 3rd inning, but KT, who started chasing after metallurgy, made a 9-9 tie at the end of the 8th inning. The match was decided in overtime. In the top of the 11th inning, LG scored the winning run with a squeeze bunt by Lee Chun-woong, a pinch hitter with 1 out, 2nd and 3rd base, and won 10-9. Ham Deok-joo of LG became the winning pitcher after clearing 2 innings cleanly with no hits, 4 strikeouts and no runs, including blocking the bottom of the 10th inning with a tripartite offense. It has been two years since the NC Dinos match on April 4, 2021 that Deok-joo Ham became the winning pitcher.