RSS Feed

Tech Support

The absence of Lee Jung-hoo (26, San Francisco Giants) in the Major League was another problem, but there were more concerns about the starting lineup. Ahn Woo-jin (25) joined the army after elbow surgery, and Jang Jae-young (22, 17 games) and Jeong Chan-hun (34, 14 games) who started the most games in their team last season also failed to join the opening lineup due to injury.

In the end, Kiwoom replaced all other starting pitchers except Ariel Furado (28). Kim Sun-ki (33) and Ha Young-min (29) were selected as starters in Korea, but they were not full-time starting pitchers last season. Last year, Kim started seven games from August, recording one win and three losses with an ERA of 4.50, and Ha Young-min appeared as relief pitcher in all 57 games. Therefore, there was a view that reorganization of the starting lineup was an adventurous change.

However, Kiwoom has outperformed expectations early this season. At the center of the game is Kim Sun-ki. He started four games and had two wins and one loss with an ERA of 3.60. In the game against the NC Dinos in Changwon on March 27, his first start, he collapsed by allowing five runs in four innings, but in the next three games, he garnered two wins by pitching a ERA of 1.69 (three earned runs in 16 innings) in good pitching.

His consistent pitching stands out. He allowed one run in five innings in succession against the Samsung Lions in Daegu on Tuesday and against the Hanwha Eagles in Gocheok on Tuesday, and made his first quality start of the season (QS, pitching six innings or more and three strikeouts or less) by allowing one run in six innings, seven hits, three walks and three strikeouts. Ha Young-min is also holding out well with three wins in three games and ERA of 3.60 (6 earned runs in 15 innings).

Until last year, Kim had failed to show remarkable performance with 10-8 losses, two saves and ERA of 5.50 in 117 games (22 starting pitchers) overall. It is important to maintain good trends at the beginning of this season when he started anew as a full-time starting pitcher. For now, the result so far has been a huge success after erasing Kiwoom's concerns about starting pitcher.