KIA Tigers’ James Nail said on his SNS on the 25th, “I sincerely thank everyone who worried and prayed a lot.”
Nail, who was wearing Kia’s uniform prior to this season, secured her first win by pitching one run (one earned run) in six innings against the Lotte Giants in her first game of debut, before posting a landslide victory of 1.47 ERA in five games in April. Initially, Kia predicted that Will Crow, who has far better experience in the Major League than Nail, would play the role of ace, but their position changed in an instant. Then, she continued her strides by playing in five games in May, with two wins, one loss and an ERA of 1.84.토토사이트
Of course, every game was not good. Nail also had ups and downs. He suffered from 1-1 loss with a 4.40 ERA, including his first five-run game against the Doosan Bears in June, and he also had two wins (one loss) in July, but his ERA was a little disappointing with 4.33. Nail, who had pitched up and down for two months, began to regain his dignity in August. He collapsed with eight runs (two earned runs) in three ⅔ innings as he did not receive help from defense against KT Wiz on the 7th, but the flow was good enough to show a scoreless pitch in three games.
And Nail started against the NC Dinos on the 24th to hunt for 12 wins of the season. Nail started the game in the first inning by tying the NC lineup, which led to Park Min-woo, Seo Ho-cheol, and Matt Davidson, with three outs, and was in the first crisis when he got a hit by Kwon Hee-dong in the second inning and gave up a walk to Kim Joo-won, but cruised to end the inning without losing a point. And in the third inning, he sent out a runner with a defensive error at the beginning, but he cooked the NC lineup without any significant crisis.
After catching both Kwon Hee-dong and Kim Hwi-jip with ground balls in the fourth inning, Nail cruised by erasing Kim Sung-wook, who was walked, as a checker, and met the requirements for victory in the fifth inning by overcoming the once-in-a-lifetime loss crisis. At the end of the fifth inning, Nail pitched only 59 pitches, and of course, she stood on the mound in the sixth inning, but an unexpected accident occurred. The hit by leadoff hitter Davison flew towards Nail’s face. It was such a shocking scene that a momentary silence came to Changwon NC Park.
As if he recognized that a serious problem had occurred, the batter ran into the dugout with his lower jaw covered, and immediately moved to the hospital. The result of the examination was the worst. After an MRI examination at Samsung Changwon Hospital on Monday, he was found to have fractured his temporomandibular joint. Kia moved quickly to Asan Medical Center in Seoul in the early morning of Saturday, and Nail immediately went to the operating table.
Manager Lee Bum-ho said, “He is a very important player for the team and suffered a big injury in his face. I was surprised by that, and I was a little surprised. How can I do this again? It was a day when I had mixed thoughts. After the game, I had nothing to say. Everything was done in the morning. Yesterday (on the 24th), I was just praying for the surgery and everything to be okay after hearing about the situation.”
Coach Kang In-kwon called manager Lee Bum-ho after the game on Monday to express his sorry, and Davison also visited Kia’s dugout with Park Min-woo to express his apology. “I also have that trauma. I saw it on the spot a few times. I saw it hit coach Kim Won-hyung and coach Choi Sang-deok when I was a player. Last year, I saw Choi get hit as a coach,” Kang said. “I didn’t talk to Davidson, but I saw his eyes shaking.”
The “2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League, KIA Tigers and LG Twins” game was held at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on August 18, 2024. KIA starter Nail is delighted after pitching six scoreless innings.
At a time when everyone was worried, Nail said on social media that the surgery was completed safely. Nail said on social media on the 24th, “If you give me a lot of worries and prayers, I sincerely thank everyone. God took good care of me last night. The operation ended well and now I am focusing on recovering. I would like to thank the officials of Asan Medical Center for their help in surgery and treatment, and I am also grateful to the Kia Tigers and NC Dinos team,” with a message of “Fighting.”
Despite the serious injury, Nail is recovering from her surgery. Still, Kia is facing the worst situation at the end of the regular season. It is uncertain whether Nail will be able to return to the mound in good health. If she obtains the ticket to directly play for the Korean Series, she can expect Nail to return to the postseason. Ace’s fatal departure. There is a reason why KIA should rank No. 1 in the pennant race once again.