KIA Tigers Young Gun Eui-ri Lee (21) is playing the role of a ‘savior’ to save the team from a crisis at the beginning of the season.
Eui-ri Lee started in an away game against the Lotte Giants held at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on the 19th and led the team to a 6-0 victory with a good pitching of 3 hits and 8 strikeouts in 5⅔ innings.
Lee Eui-ri, who became the winning pitcher with 3 runs (1 earned) in 5 innings against SSG Landers on the 2nd, which was the first appearance of the season, reaped a starting victory in 3 games.
While the team was on a five-game losing streak, Lee Eui-ri, who took the mound with a heavy sense of responsibility, cooked Lotte’s batting line with a fastball and a breaking ball with a maximum speed of 153km.
At the end of the 3rd inning, he brought himself into a crisis with two hits and one walk, but he showed his crisis management ability to strike out all the Lotte cleanup trio Jack Rex, Jeon Jun-woo, and Ahn Chi-hong.
When Lee Eui-ri escaped the bases-loading crisis, the silent batting line also responded. At the beginning of the 4th inning, he succeeded in targeting opponent starter Han Hyeon-hee, scoring 5 points and helping Lee Eui-ri win the starter.
Eui-ri Lee’s pitching this season is a great boost to KIA, which was sluggish in the early stages. He recorded 2 wins (1 loss) in 4 games and was responsible for half of the team’s 4 wins.
Nutritional value is also good. After losing the opening game, he led the victory in the next game and raised the team atmosphere that had subsided, and took the lead in breaking the long losing streak in the game on the 19th.
There is no game that has digested 6 innings yet, but whenever necessary, he rescues the team from crisis with good pitches and keeps Yang Hyeon-jong and his pride as a native starter. Eui-ri Lee currently ranks first in the team for most wins and tied for first in the average ERA (1.93).
Lee Eui-ri, who won the rookie of the year in 2021, the first year of his professional debut, stepped on the 10-win (10-loss) high in the second year of the pro in the following year, 2022, and stepped up to become a complete starting pitcher. Based on this, he also experienced bold international stages such as the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC).
This year, his third year as a professional,토토사이트 he is giving up a lot of walks due to pitch hunting, but he offsets this with pitching that minimizes his runs. Eui-ri Lee, who gave up 6 walks on the 2nd and 5 walks each on the 8th and 13th, reduced the number of walks to 3 on the 19th. This is proof that the zero point is being taken.
He showed improvement by accepting coach Kim Jong-guk’s advice, “I hope you don’t get stressed about walks. Just throw long innings like now and reduce runs.”
Eui-ri Lee said, “Right now, I think it’s good to block even 5 innings with the minimum run. Lee Eui-ri, whose mentality has matured as much as his accumulated years of experience, is taking his place from the future of the KIA mound to the present.