KIA Tigers' Nail, who is regarded as the best pitcher in the KBO League, collapsed terribly. He allowed the most earned runs since his KBO League debut.
Nail took the mound as the starting pitcher in the first game of a doubleheader against the SSG Landers at Incheon SSG Landers Field on the 11th. He allowed 8 hits, 2 walks, and 7 earned runs over 4 innings. His earned run average skyrocketed from 1.09 to 2.18. He was replaced by Kim Geon-guk in the 5th inning, trailing 3-7.
After one out in the first inning, he gave up a single to left field to Park Seong-han, but ended the inning with a ground ball double play against Choi Jeong.
However, he faced a crisis in the second inning. He allowed the leadoff batter Han Yu-seom to reach on a walk and gave up a single to center field to MacBroom. The runner on first, Han Yu-seom, aggressively advanced to third base and was safe.
Choi Jun-woo's hit became a timely single that dropped right in front of the center fielder. The runner on third scored. With a sacrifice bunt by Kim Seong-hyun, there were runners on second and third with one out. Jeong Jun-jae's hit resulted in a groundout to the first baseman, and the runners were unable to advance. He allowed an additional 2 earned runs on a timely single to center field by Jo Hyung-woo.
He also allowed runs in the third. He gave up a single to left field to leadoff batter Park Seong-han. After a wild pitch, the runner advanced to second base. With no outs on second base, he struck out Choi Jeong and Han Yu-seom consecutively. However, he allowed a double that hit the center fence on a one-bounce to MacBroom, giving up 1 run. The score became 0-4.
Nail allowed runs again in the fourth inning, giving up hits. He walked leadoff batter Kim Seong-hyun and allowed a stolen base to second. He struck out Jeong Jun-jae, but gave up a timely single to center field to Jo Hyung-woo, resulting in another earned run.
With one out and a runner on first, he allowed a triple down the right-center gap to Choi Ji-hoon, leading to another earned run. He conceded the seventh run on a sacrifice fly to left field by Park Seong-han.
Last year, Nail had one instance of allowing 9 earned runs and one instance of allowing 8 earned runs. However, the most earned runs he had was 5. He became the losing pitcher against SSG on June 13 last year, allowing 9 hits, striking out 9, and giving up 5 earned runs over 6 innings.
On this day against SSG, Nail allowed the most earned runs since his KBO League debut. Last year, against SSG, he had 2 games, 1 loss, with an earned run average of 6.17 (11⅔ innings, 8 earned runs), which was the worst among the 9 teams. In his first match against SSG this season, he delivered his worst pitching.
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