The weight and name value of the KT Wiz-centered lineup is not pushed by any club. He lost his pride in the match against the league’s representative fireball player, An Woo-jin.
On the 25th, KT lost 0-1 in the first game of three consecutive matches against the 2023 KBO League Kiwoom Heroes held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. The score was 1 point difference, but both offense and game management were clear defeats.
On this day, Kiwoom’s selection was lead representative pitcher Ahn Woo-jin. 2022 season average ERA (2.11) strikeouts (224) 2 gold medal Ahn Woo-jin showed an overwhelming ERA this season, recording an average ERA of 1.08 in 4 games he started in April.
An Woo-jin recorded an average ERA of 5.11 in 4 games against KT last season. It was the highest record among the 9 opposing clubs. This is because on July 28th, in the Suwon expedition, it collapsed by giving up 8 runs in 5 and 2/3 innings.
However, except for this game, the results were not bad. In the first game and the fifth game, respectively, against the KT lineup that he met in the postseason stage (semi-playoff), he had a good fight with 6 scoreless innings and 2 runs in 6 innings, respectively.
The KT lineup did not record a single hit against An Woo-jin until the 6th inning. In the top of the 2nd inning, Sang-Cheol Moon walked after 2 outs, in the 4th inning, after 1 out, Anthony Alford made a catch error by the shortstop, and Sang-Cheol Moon, the first hitter in the 5th inning, got on base with a throw error by the 3rd baseman. Alford, who came out as the lead batter in the 7th inning, hit left and ended the no-hit streak with difficulty.
The score failed. After Alford got on base, he stole the base with 2, and An Woo-jin, who was directly handling Park Byung-ho’s infield ground ball, was late in throwing to third base, and was safely placed on first and third base. In this situation, Jang Seong-woo fouled catcher, Sang-cheol Moon failed to squeeze bunt, and pinch hitter Joon-tae Kim struck out. 스포츠토토
On this day, KT’s flagship hitter Kang Baek-ho stepped back with an infield ground ball against An Woo-jin, and Park Byung-ho struck out in the second and fourth innings. Alford also struck out in the first game in the first inning and went on base with a fielder’s error in the fourth.
KT hitters could hardly make a hit. In particular, Ahn Woo-jin’s main weapon, the mid-150km/h fastball attack, completely failed. Alford’s only hit that day was a curve hit. Alford’s attacking ball that induced Kiwoom shortstop Edison Russell’s throwing error in the 4th inning was also a slider.
Only Oh Yoon-seok’s batted ball in the second inning, which extended deep into the middle outfield, was a 153km/h fastball. In other words, out of 48 four-seam fastballs (fastballs) thrown by Ahn Woo-jin in this game, only one was hit by the KT batter who hit the center of the bat.
On this day, Ahn Woo-jin made full use of a slider with a difference in drop and showed a brilliant ball combination. Since the type of pitch was not confirmed, there were only 6 balls marked as ‘Other’. It looked like a sweeper that Ahn Woo-jin had recently polished and used in practice.
KT’s other line was completely hit by Ahn Woo-jin, who even sprinkled a light speed ball with an unknown breaking ball. An Woo-jin also gave 8 points and erased the shaken memory.