Koo Ja-wook of the Samsung Lions started Game 11 of the season against the Kiwoom Heroes of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 10th, and led the team to escape from four consecutive losses with three hits, one RBI and one run in four at-bats. On this day, Koo Ja-wook hit a timely RBI in the first inning with one out and second base, and became the main player of the final hit.유흥알바
Koo Ja-wook, whom he met after the match, said, “All the players did well and won. In particular, (Lee) Seung-hyun threw well. Heysus, who I think is Kiwoom’s ace, came up, and I think I could have won because he threw better.”
On the day, Lee garnered his fourth win in this season by displaying quality pitching of four hits, two walks and no strikeouts. Kiwoom starter Enmanuel de Heissus was sluggish in 5.1 innings with five hits and four walks, striking out nine and allowing four runs.
“The team was losing consecutive games. I think the players focused more on it. Even before the game, I felt strong desire to stop losing consecutive games. Pitchers and fielders alike were able to play in unison and win the game. We also had additional points, and (Park) Byeong-ho hit a wedge-shaped shot, which made it easy to win,” Koo said.
The highlight of the day was Koo Ja-wook’s finishing hit in the first inning and Park Byung-ho’s big three-run homer in the seventh inning, but Lee Seong-gyu’s diving catch with the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning. Lee Seong-gyu caught Song Seong-moon’s big hit with the bases loaded with two outs in the seventh inning when his team was leading 7 to 1. “I expected to win after Lee Seong-gyu’s diving catch,” Samsung coach Park Jin-man even said.
Koo Ja-wook also said, “Sung-gyu is receiving a lot of opportunities this year. I feel good that he is doing so well. I am glad that he showed a good performance without getting hurt.” “In fact, personally, I thought it was not too much, but I felt like he was getting a hit again. I thought, ‘Let’s just allow two runs, let’s not allow three runs,’ but Sung-gyu blew himself away. He played a very good defense.”
Samsung had recently been mired in four consecutive losses. While it continued its good trend with five consecutive wins before losing four consecutive games, it was losing consecutive games to SSG Landers and Kiwoom.
Koo Ja-wook said, “There was one thing that struck me when the coach said. Whether they win 1-0 or 10-0 they all have the same one win. They also lost 0-1 and 0-10 all have the same one loss.” Players want to do well every day, but they always emphasize the importance of winning one team rather than individual players. He always says, “Let’s go with the team, not individual players. As the captain, I am delivering it to the players well.”
After slowing down in May with a batting average of 0.242, Koo woke up again in June. He had a batting average of 0.407 with 11 hits, five RBIs and three runs scored in June. Among his 11 hits, he had five long hits (four doubles and one home run).
Koo Ja-wook said, “Hitting is really difficult. Hit is something that you can hit well even if you are playing well, and you can hit well even if you are not playing well. Even if my batting sense was not good, I tried not to think of it as a bad side. Just watching this game alone, the missed hit became a hit, and the hit well was out. I try not to care too much.”
Finally, Koo Ja-wook said, “I’m proud and grateful that many people came to the baseball stadium and voted for all-star fans,” adding, “The fans are looking forward to it a lot, and they may be disappointed as much as they expected, but our players are doing well, so I’d appreciate it if you could support us until the end with the same heart as the first time.”