Former Kia Tigers coach once said this when he was a head coach. He was a famed second baseman when he was active, and a shortstop who used to fly until high school. Even he recalled that there was a time when he put his team in the quagmire by making a critical mistake. “I feel so sorry to the players, and I even want to dig in from the second base where I was standing.”스포츠토토
He was criticized a lot, but baseball players have to play baseball again. When a player makes a critical mistake, he must thoroughly analyze why he did it, and then forget the scene. Among the Kia players who lost 0-1 to the KT Wiz in Gwangju on Tuesday, second baseman Hong Jong-pyo must have slept the least.
As a pinch runner at the bottom of the seventh inning, Hong appeared at bat twice at the ninth inning and the 11th inning, striking out both players. In fact, a critical error will come to mind more than this one at the top of the 12th inning. KT’s pinch hitter Moon Sang-cheol was out with one out and runners on the first base. When Moon hit a ground ball to the shortstop, Hong naturally started to cover the second base. After receiving the ball from Park Chan-ho, he increased the count.
However, the moment he turned around and threw the ball to the first base, it was a bad pitch. As the ball floated high, the first baseman flew to a course he couldn’t catch. It seemed like he gripped the wrong grip or the commonly called ball fell out of his hand. The inning had to end, but it was two outs and a second base. The batter Moon Sang-chul had enough time to go to the second base.
Here, Hwang Jae-gyun hit a timely RBI single to left-center field, and KT won 1-0. KIA tried to exchange the positions of center fielder Park Jung-woo and left fielder Socrates Brito in preparation for Hwang’s hit to the left, to no avail. The game ended in the bottom of the 12th inning with two outs and a runner on the first base.
As a result, Hong Jong-pyo’s error determined the direction of the game. KIA also failed to support its ace James Nail by committing three errors at the match against Gwangju KT on Sunday. Due to such errors, the team had one win and two losses against KT, and posted a losing series. It was still 5.5 games ahead of the runner-up LG Twins, but it was a three-game series during the week that reaffirmed Kia’s commitment to this season.
KIA has now committed 110 errors. It will rank No. 1 ranking in the league as many as possible. Kim Do-young will rank No. 1 and No. 2 with 24 and Park Chan-ho with 15. The same applies to both Kim Do-young and Park Chan-ho, who also made critical mistakes in the Tuesday game. They can check their mistakes and forget them. At this point, more defense training will not change anything.
Manager Lee Bum-ho will be quite worried. KIA’s offense has recently declined as Choi Hyung-woo fell out due to an internal oblique injury. Lee Woo-sung has returned, but the weight cannot be the same. The more we do this, the more we need a solid defense, but this year, KIA will give us too many points that we don’t have to give. If this kind of performance comes out in a short-term match, it can be a big obstacle to the presidential bid.
KIA players must be aware of this as it is only a day or two. However, the concern is that there are no signs of resolution in the actual match. At this point in time, chances are high that Kia will directly advance to the Korean Series, but it is difficult to guarantee victory in the Korean Series with this level of defense capability.