Eui-ri Lee (21, KIA Tigers) continues his frustrating pitching.
Eui-ri Lee started against the Doosan Bears in the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium on the 12th, and ended with 5 hits, 3 walks, 4 strikeouts and 2 runs in 4 innings, only 3 losses (2 wins) of the season. KIA lost 1-6 and fell into a three-game losing streak.
Lee Eui-ri pitched 31⅓ innings in seven games this season, recording an ERA of 2.87. This record was possible because he never collapsed by giving up more than 4 points in a game.
The problem is innings. 메이저사이트 He often gets over 100 pitches before starting the 5th inning, so it is difficult to give even 5 innings. The most innings this season is 5⅔ innings against the Lotte Giants on the 19th of last month, and the majority of the games that did not even reach the threshold of 5 innings are 4 games. However, there are 5 games that have exceeded 100 pitches. This shows how many balls are wasted in each game.
It was the same with Doosan. Eui-ri Lee threw a whopping 101 pitches in 4 innings and was replaced by Ki-young Lim before the 5th inning. Since he had no control over changing balls such as change-ups and curveballs, he had to stick with only fastballs. He had 22 balls out of 65 fastballs. One out of three balls was a ball.
Because of this situation, even a left-handed pitcher’s fastball with a maximum speed of 152 km did not threaten the opponent’s batting line at all. Since there are many breaking balls, even just aiming for a fastball became a game to some extent.
Lee Eui-ri easily lost the first run by allowing lead hitter Heo Gyeong-min to hit a double that went to the left of left fielder at the end of the first inning. In the ensuing first company and third base, Yang Eui-ji gave a right-handed hit and was dragged to 0-1. Even the next hitter Yang Seok-hwan allowed a hit, putting him in a crisis with one out and 1st and 2nd base, but he overcame the challenge by treating Song Seung-hwan as a double hit by the second baseman.
The problem was in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Lee Eui-ri used 42 balls to catch 3 outcounts. He wasted nearly two innings of throwing power at this time. After one out, after a fight with Heo Gyeong-min to 10 pitches, he gave up a walk and was hit by Park Gye-beom, and then Yang Eui-ji threw up to 9 pitches and allowed a walk, putting him in danger of being loaded with bases. He then gave up a sacrifice fly to right field to Yang Seok-hwan, making it 0-2. Yang Seok-hwan’s batted ball itself was not deep, but after watching right fielder Lee Woo-seong step back and catch the ball, third base runner Heo Gyeong-min tactfully dug into the home base, leading to a run.
Lee Eui-ri was able to end the inning by throwing Song Seung-hwan with a straight walk in the ongoing second-out, 2nd and 3rd base crisis, making the bases full once more, and then handling Jose Rojas with a ground ball to the first baseman.
Lee Eui-ri developed into a full-time starter last year, his second year as a pro, recording 29 games, 10 wins, 10 losses, 154 innings, 161 strikeouts, and an average ERA of 3.86. The fact that he is the next ace to succeed KIA veteran left-handed ace Yang Hyeon-jong (35) has not changed so far. That’s why Lee Eui-ri seems to have to find a way to not waste the number of pitches in the near future.