The Lotte Giants foreign pitcher Alec Gamboa had a harsh debut due to his 'Sguri' pitching stance.
Gamboa made his first start against the Samsung Lions in the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League regular season at Daegu Samsung Lions Park on the 27th.
Gamboa's debut, which garnered attention for the matchup against Samsung's Hu-ra-do, fell apart after allowing a triple steal due to his 'Sguri' pitching stance.
After striking out Samsung's Kim Ji-chan in the first inning, Gamboa allowed a hit to Lee Jae-hyun but induced strikeouts from Kim Sung-yoon and Diaz. After allowing a hit to Kang Min-ho in the second inning with one out, Gamboa caught Ryu Ji-hyeok's ground ball, getting the lead runner Kang Min-ho out. A hit by Park Seung-kyu and a hit-by-pitch on Lee Seong-kyu loaded the bases. He allowed an infield hit to Kim Ji-chan, resulting in 2 runs.
At that moment, Kang Min-ho informed head coach Park Jin-man from the dugout about Gamboa's habit of not checking the runners during his pitching preparation.
While he was looking at the ground for nearly 5 seconds with the ball still in his glove, the runner on third base, Lee Seong-kyu, successfully stole home.
Catcher Yoo Kang-nam tried to alert Gamboa about Lee Seong-kyu's home steal, but Gamboa only looked up after Lee Seong-kyu had crossed the home plate. After seeing Yoo Kang-nam's signal, Gamboa threw the ball to third base in an attempt to stop any subsequent runners, but ultimately allowed the ninth triple steal in history.
This was a clear exposure of Gamboa's habit of preparing for his pitches while completely neglecting the runner on third base, maintaining his 'Sguri' pitching stance.
Soon after, pitching coach Joo Hyung-gwang went up to the mound, and Gamboa did not adopt the 'Sguri' pitching stance afterwards.
On that day, Gamboa recorded 4⅔ innings pitched, 5 hits allowed, 3 walks, 9 strikeouts, and 4 earned runs. Out of a total of 89 pitches, 60 were strikes, with a maximum speed of 155 km/h, mixing in curves, sliders, and changeups.
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