I was so curious, what kind of ball I'll throw against Park Dong-won, who shocked me a year ago...
Oct 05, 2024
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Jamsil Stadium on the 5th, when the first round of the semi-playoff between the LG Twins and the KT Wiz was held. At the bottom of the ninth inning when KT was keeping a thin ice lead by 3-2 points. KT closer Park Young-hyun sent out one runner, but he caught up to two outs well. And Park Dong-won came into the batter's box.
The moment when the pain of a year ago can't help but come to mind. Park Young-hyun took the mound in the eighth inning in the second game of the Korean Series last year and was hit by a home run by Park Dong-won. With this home run, LG won a miraculous come-from-behind victory in Game 2, and KT, which caught Game 1, collapsed there and had to watch LG win.
At that time, it was the first pitch and change-up chosen by Park Young-hyun and Jang Sung-woo's batteries. Park Young-hyun, who has a good fastball, and Park Dong-won, who is very aggressive at bat, so it must have been a reverse match. However, Park Dong-won hit the change-up as if he had been waiting. There was also a side where the ball went in with a pitch.
And a year later, it was a similar situation. Park Dong-won's big hit was the end of the game. So I was so curious what kind of ball Park Young-hyun and Jang Sung-woo's batteries would throw at the first pitch. All three, including Park Dong-won, must have been unable to forget their memories of last year.
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After the game, Park Young-hyun said, `Of course, it reminded me of last year. So I threw my first pitch more carefully." Then "Ballabae completely trusts Jang Sung-woo. The senior's choice was a slider. I think he also ruled out changeups last year, explaining that "I actually wanted to compete with a fastball. But the slider was good, too. Recently, I was confident in my fastball and slider. I thought it would be good to have either a fastball or a slider."
Park Young-hyun is perfectly guarding KT's back door with overwhelming pitching this fall. The performance has been soaring since the second half of the year. It easily goes over 150km. Park Young-hyun "I'm really throwing with all my might. If I evaluate the ball by myself now, I think it has risen to 90% out of 100%, he said with confidence. "It's the same as facing Park Dong-won, and LG threw a lot of sliders because there were many strong hitters, so I think the results came out well."
Unfortunately, the match between Park Young-hyun and Park Dong-won could not be concluded. This is because first baseman Kim Dae-won died while stealing. Park Dong-won also swung and missed the slider on the second pitch. Park Young-hyun threw only fastballs against Oh Ji-hwan and Kim Hyun-soo, but he threw only two sliders against Park Dong-won.
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