SSG, which has been on a clear decline since August, lost both of its recent two games and fell to 6th place. It was clear that there was no room for the team. Anyway, we needed to win to change the team atmosphere, but that hasn’t been the case recently.먹튀검증
Even ahead of the Incheon Lotte game on the 23rd, the outlook for the game was not very good. This is because starting pitcher Kirk McCarty has been on a somewhat downward trend recently, and conversely, Lotte starting pitcher Charlie Barnes has been showing his best pitching. Before today’s game, Barnes had pitched 63 innings in the last 10 games and recorded an ERA of 1.86. The most points scored in the last 10 games was 3.
SSG took note of the fact that Barnes was very strong against left-handed hitters, and filled all nine starting batting orders with right-handed hitters. Even with the exception of Choi Ji-hoon and Park Seong-han, who went to the Asian Games, they showed a strong performance by removing all key hitters such as Choo Shin-soo and Hanyu Seom and Choi Joo-hwan from the starting lineup.
The player at the top of this lineup was Oh Tae-gon, the team’s infield and outfield utility player. Oh Tae-gon, who signed a four-year free agent contract with SSG ahead of this season, has recently led the team as the team captain on behalf of Hanyu Island. However, apart from that, his personal performance was not very good. He had a batting average of 0.222, 4 home runs, 20 RBI, and an OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) of 0.621 in 105 games on the season. He wasn’t very strong in scoring either.
However, the justification for moving up to number 1 was clear. Because he was the natural enemy of Barnes, the starter that day. Oh Tae-gon recorded a batting average of 0.545 (6 hits in 11 at-bats) against Barnes in his personal career. Of the six hits, three were doubles. Whenever I met Barnes, I got excited. The personal compatibility was clear. Oh Tae-gon 100% lived up to SSG’s expectations of opening a path for attack. He consistently harassed Barnes from the start with hits.
Oh Tae-gon hit a double in the first inning when the score was 0-0, laying the foundation for the first run. He caught Barnes’ second pitch, a two-seam fastball, at exactly the right time and hit a double that landed in the right-center field. Oh Tae-gon took the lead by hitting home on a double that passed the key to Heredia’s left fielder with two outs.
In the 3rd inning, he was stuck with a fly ball to first base, but in the 5th inning with 2 outs and runners on first base, he hit a clean left-field hit again, completing a multi-hit game early on. And he hit a timely hit again at the most crucial moment, becoming one of the highlights of the game that day.
With SSG tied 1-1, Kim Seong-hyun hit a double with one out in the 7th inning. Here, pinch hitter Han Yu-seom Card ended with a strikeout, but SSG put the game on the line again by pinch-hitting left-handed hitter Choi Hang. Choi Hang had a great batting average of 0.375 in 42 games in the Futures League this year, but his batting average in the first team was not that high at 0.188 in 13 games. Here he had never even faced Barnes. However, SSG coach Kim Won-hyung believed in Choi Hang’s batting ability.
Choi Hang did not miss Barnes’ fastball and pushed it to the finish line, hitting a timely double along the left field line, giving the team a valuable point. After SSG gained momentum, it was Oh Tae-gon’s turn.
Oh Tae-gon, who came to bat after Choi Hang, hit a timely hit that fell next to center field to make it 3-1. SSG didn’t stop there, with Kim Kang-min hitting a hit to right-center to advance to first and second base, and Kim Chan-hyung, who was in the lineup due to a minor injury to Choi Jeong, hit a timely hit to quickly go up 4-1. In the end, SSG won 4-2 thanks to the performance of both players.
After the game, Oh Tae-gon said, “My goal today was to get on base every at-bat and help the team win. I think I got 3 hits with that earnest desire. I tried to think of the good feeling that it was not bad against the opposing pitcher, and my outside strategy worked well. “(In the 7th inning) with a one-point lead, I wanted to somehow score one more point and lighten the shoulders of the bullpen. I will do my best in the remaining games and do my best to make sure we can go to fall baseball.”
Choi Hang-do also said, “Coach Park Jeong-kwon told me to continue preparing because I could play in the game even though I wasn’t 100%. I was preparing my mind and body in advance before going out to bat, and I think the opportunity came because the manager readily chose me.” He added, “Usually, left-handed hitters are “There is a perception that I am weak against left-handed pitchers, but personally, when facing left-handed pitchers, I go to bat comfortably thinking only of two pitches, the fastball and the slider. I think coach Jeong-gi saw this tendency in me from the second team and recommended me,” he said.
He continued, “I tried to attack the ball that entered the strike zone as much as possible during the at-bat, and the ball came into the zone and resulted in a hit. I felt a thrill that I haven’t felt in a long time, and I believe that all the players on our team will play their roles well until the end of the season.” He promised.