Cam Aldred was nervous in his debut match. But in the worst case scenario, change is enough. But he needs to be firmly established.퀸알바
The KIA Tigers failed to secure a five-point lead in the match against Doosan Bears in Jamsil on Tuesday, and lost, and was chased by the third-place Doosan Bears. If the team loses a game on Wednesday, it will rank third. However, what matters more than the ranking is the performance of players. Will Crow and Lim Ki-young are no longer important. Aldred and Lim Ki-young are important.
As Hwang Dong-ha established himself in the starting lineup, he had some leeway to turn Lim Ki-young into a bullpen. As a result, manager Lee Bum-ho was able to announce his move to the bullpen with Aldred joining after Lim Ki-young’s first start of the season. So Lim Ki-young took the mound as relief pitcher on Tuesday after starting against Lotte Giants in Gwangju.
However, Lim Ki-young’s pace has not been very good since his return to the mound. He returned to the mound at the game against the NC Dinos in Changwon on May 29. He garnered two hits, three strikeouts, one walk and no loss in two ⅔ innings to win the game. However, he showed sluggish performance in the game against Lotte on Monday, as he allowed nine hits, two strikeouts, one walk and five runs in four ⅓ innings.
He took three days off and returned to the bullpen. He allowed two hits, one strikeout, and one run in two innings against the Doosan Bears on Tuesday. He started as a relief pitcher and then started as a bullpen pitcher. Such a schedule makes it difficult to manage his condition. He says he has to do something, but to Lim, it is practically March or early April. It is hard to say that he is in 100 percent of his condition.
The game was rushed into action on Saturday when Aldred had two consecutive hits after causing a crisis with no outs in the fourth inning. He induced Henry Ramos to hit a fly ball to the left field with his main weapon changeup, and exchanged an out count for one run to the successor. Heo Kyung-min, the league’s biggest slugger, also caught a fly ball to the first baseman through a changeup, but failed to overcome Yang Eui-ji’s barrier.
Lim Ki-young pitched carefully, violating the pitch clock twice only at Yang Eui-ji’s bat. He almost hit a changeup on the ground with a ball count of 2B1S, but Yang Eui-ji connected it to a two-run double on the left. It was not Lim Ki-young’s mistake. To Kim Jae-hwan, he completely threw the changeup outside and struck out swinging. In the fifth inning, Yang Seok-hwan, the first batter in good condition, hit a solo shot as he went into a good height for a fastball to hit.
He allowed one run, but his pitching was not bad except for the home run he gave to Yang Seok-hwan. He took the mound three days after his start, and although his condition was not normal, he did his part. In the future, if the starters return to Yang Hyun-jong, James Nail, Aldred, Yoon Young-chul and Hwang Dong-ha, Lim Ki-young will be fixed in the bullpen.
Closing pitchers Jung Hae-young and Jeon Sang-hyun are displaying good pace in the KIA bullpen. Kwak Do-gyu, who returned this week, is also okay. Jang Hyun-sik and Lee Joon-young did not play well in Doosan’s away match this time, but their recent pitching is not bad. Anyway, energy management is an important time as the summer game begins in earnest. The best scenario is that Lim Ki-young acts as a lubricant among existing bullpen pitchers who are tired. On the other hand, it is a bad scenario that some of the existing starting pitchers get shaken up and start again.