"It was not a look of diminished power."

Hong Won-ki, manager of the Kiwoom Heroes, explained the struggles of foreign ace Kenny Rosenberg, who started the game on the 15th, ahead of the regular season game against the Lotte Giants on the 16th at Busan Sajik Stadium.

Kiwoom is the only team this year to use one foreign pitcher. This makes the role of foreign pitcher Rosenberg crucial. Performance is still erratic. On the 9th, he delivered a perfect performance against LG, pitching 8 innings with 4 hits allowed, 1 walk, 13 strikeouts, and no earned runs. He recorded 108 pitches.

However, in the game against Lotte on the 15th, after a normal 5-day rest, he struggled through 5 innings, allowing 7 hits, 3 walks, 1 hit by pitch, 4 strikeouts, and 4 earned runs. The perfect form from the previous appearance was nowhere to be seen.

He had a perfect performance against 8 batters until 2 outs in the 3rd inning and recorded no earned runs through 3 innings. However, he faltered beginning in the 4th inning. After 1 out in the 4th, he gave up consecutive hits to RAY and Na Seung-yeop, and issued a walk to Yoo Gang-nam, creating a bases-loaded crisis, and then allowed Ko Seung-min a 2-run single.

In the 5th inning, he again created a bases-loaded crisis, allowing Na Seung-yeop a walk that forced in a run, leading to 2 additional earned runs, and he was unable to complete the 5th inning, being removed from the game. He threw a total of 91 pitches.

Before the game on the 16th, manager Hong Won-ki emphasized that he was more disappointed with Rosenberg's pitching than with the two-run homer hit by Jeon Jun-woo in the 8th that turned the game around. He said, "Rosenberg needed to pitch aggressively like he did from the 1st to the 3rd innings. However, since the bloop hits started coming, he began to overthink on the mound. In fact, I believe it was possible for the game to turn around yesterday, but the performance Rosenberg showed in the 4th and 5th innings stayed in my mind."

Since he had thrown a lot of pitches in his last appearance, could there have been a physical burden? Manager Hong Won-ki shook his head. He noted, "He threw over 100 pitches against LG, but it was not that he lacked power. When I saw his form in the early innings, that was not the case," and added, "After the bloop hit in the 4th, he started throwing unnecessary pitches that misled the batters, creating difficult situations for himself."

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