Lotte Giants closer Kim Won-joong (31) had a nightmare July. He seeks a rebound while reflecting on this nightmare July.
In a match against the NC Dinos held at Sajik Stadium in Busan on Sunday, Lotte won its third consecutive game by overturning 0-4 to 6-5. The team won all three games in August.먹튀검증
Lotte seemed to lose the game as its starter Aaron Wilkerson allowed five runs (four earned runs) in five innings on the day. However, it recovered two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning when the team was losing 1-5, thanks to Son Seong-bin’s walk to push with the bases loaded with no outs and Hwang Sung-bin’s timely hit to the right. With the bases loaded with no outs, Ko Seung-min was out after a double play by the pitcher, but Jeon Joon-woo’s timely two-run hit with runners on the second and third bases with two outs made it to tie the game at 5-5. Then, Na Seung-yeop made a timely hit to come from behind in the eighth inning.
And in the ninth inning, Lotte Giants closing pitcher Kim Won-joong, who had no save since the game against Hanwha Eagles in Sajik on June 28, came up. During the month of July, Lotte pitched in eight games and recorded one win and two losses without any save. He had an earned run average of 11.05 and blon saves three times. Such poor performance had been concentrated since late July. From the game against Samsung in Daegu on July 21 to the game against SSG in Munhak on July 31, his team recorded a whopping 20.25 (nine earned runs in four innings). His team had one win and four losses.
Kim Won-joong took the test again on August 6, when he took the mound in his first game. He got off to a light start by striking out Kim Joo-won, his first batter. However, he had consecutive hits by Park Min-woo and Seo Ho-cheol, putting him on the verge of a crisis with one out and runners on the first and second bases. He threw wild pitches in addition to this, making him the second and third bases with one out. It was Davidson’s at-bat, but he let go of four pitches on purpose. He aimed for a double play operation with one out and the bases loaded with one out.
With the bases loaded, Kim Won-joong faced Kwon Hee-dong, the first batter, and had a line drive towards the third base. However, Choi Hang, a substitute third baseman, made a jump catch to clear the ball. The bases loaded with two outs, and Kim managed to garner a save by inducing Kim Hui-jip to ground out to the shortstop. He made 17 saves this season, his 124th in total. He waited 39 days to see this save.
After the game, Kim Won-joong greeted the reporters with a face that was reminiscent. “I’m not good at it, but…”If you pass it like this once, good energy will come to you again. I think so, and I threw it with the mindset that whether the batters’ bat wins or if I want to give it a try, and I think I won today,” he said, breaking his long save silence.
“I would be lying if it wasn’t hard for me, but it wasn’t that hard,” Kim Won-joong said. “Even if I pretend it wasn’t, it was a recent game full of emotions. I thought I shouldn’t get soaked in those emotions because tomorrow will come anyway and I’m going to throw again on the mound,” he said. “I tried to throw hard every time I went out, but the result was bad. The slump is bound to be endless, and if you know the reason for the slump, there will be no reason for it. I prepared every game with a comfortable mindset that I couldn’t do anything when I couldn’t.”
As for the moment when the ball went to Choi Hang with one out and the bases loaded with one out, he said, “I was thinking simply that if I pass, I will lose, and if I catch it, I will win,” adding, “I believed that Choi Hang would hold it when I went to Hang because he has good energy.” Choi Hang became a father on the 5th when he became a daughter.
Kim Won-joong responded to the sluggishness, saying, “It’s not a process, but a matter of outcome.” Both the process and the routine were fine, but I thought the result was bad. “The process I was preparing for was fine, and I didn’t think I failed. I thought the problem was the result,” he said. “I tried to prepare more perfectly and hard, and the result was inevitable, so I tried to accept that. Also, the slump may come in the future, but I will think that there is no choice but to go up further because there was a slump rather than thinking like that.”
There is nothing natural, but Kim consistently showed his trust in closing pitcher Kim Won-joong. Kim Won-joong is also aware of this feeling. “I am grateful because it is not natural that coaches and coaches will trust me. And I tried harder and stronger to show good performances and repay my trust.”