'Daejeon Jesus' Tyler Weiss's ninth inning roar of a lion has been revealed. Despite wanting to finish the eighth inning after a previous two-run homer allowed, the bench made a substitution decision, and an unexpected shout escaped him in disappointment.
Weiss, who started in the third game of the season against the Doosan Bears in the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Seoul Jamsil Stadium on March 10, pitched 7⅔ innings, allowing 4 hits (1 home run), no walks, striking out 7, and giving up 2 earned runs with 94 pitches, marking his first win of the season after 3 tries and 4 attempts. It was a valuable performance that led the team to win the midweek three-game series.
After the game, Weiss noted, 'I showed a poor performance in the last game, so I wanted to do whatever I could to make up for it in the Doosan game by increasing the volume of my fastball and sweeper, and that part worked well. I'm glad the team could win.'
Weiss's average earned run average prior to the game was 6.89. In his last appearance against the Daegu Samsung Lions on the 4th, he pitched 4⅔ innings, giving up 5 earned runs and taking the loss. Weiss added, 'I know the team trusts me. However, after showing disappointing performances in the last few games, I wanted to show a changed performance today to help secure a win.'
With 13 hits and 7 runs, the Hanwha Dynamite lineup exploded to support Weiss's first win. Weiss said, 'I believe in our hitters. There was some batting sluggishness since the opening, but during Ryu Hyun-jin's start in Daegu, I think the game where we came back in the 8th and 9th innings with the strength of our lineup was a turning point for our batting.'
In the eighth inning, with a 7-0 lead, Weiss took the mound and allowed a hit to leadoff batter Kim Jae-hwan, then surrendered a two-run homer to Choo Jae-hyun, ending his scoreless streak. After that, he got Park Gye-beom to ground out to first and struck out Kim Ki-yeon swinging, regaining his composure before pitching coach Yang Sang-moon came out of the dugout to make a pitching change right before Jeong Soo-bin's at-bat. Weiss's pitch count was 94.
Weiss repeatedly shouted 'NO' at pitching coach Yang Sang-moon, waving his hands vigorously. This indicated he could throw more. However, Yang, having already decided to make the change, came to the mound, and after a few brief exchanges with the coach, Weiss passed the baton to Kim Bum-soo. As Weiss headed to the dugout, he let out a roar of a lion, seemingly disappointed by the substitution.
Weiss explained, 'I have a strong competitive spirit, so I think that competitiveness came out on the mound today. I gave up a two-run homer, but I wanted to take full responsibility for the eighth inning. Since that didn't go well, I felt disappointed.'
When asked what he discussed with the pitching coach, he replied, 'I kept thinking about giving up that two-run homer, which made me feel disappointed, but the coach encouraged me, saying, “You've done a lot. Thank you for pitching well today.” '
After setting a turning point with that day's game, Weiss set consistency as his goal for the remainder of the season. He stated, 'Baseball seems like a really challenging sport. You can suddenly perform well, but you can also drop at any time. From now on, I will do my best to maintain consistency while throwing the ball.'
[OSEN]