SSG Landers manager Lee Soong-yong emphasized the importance of player health management during difficult times.
Lee Soong-yong noted in an interview before the game against the KT Wiz on 9th at Incheon SSG Landers Field for the '2025 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League' that "when we win, the probability of winning is high if the pitchers perform well and there are no defensive errors," reflecting on the previous match.
SSG defeated KT 7-1 on the 8th. Starting pitcher Kim Kwang-hyun pitched 5 innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 3 and giving up 1 run, but sadly did not become the winning pitcher. The bullpen of Noh Gyeong-eun (1 inning, no runs) - Kim Min (1 inning, no runs) - Lee Ro-woon (1 inning, no runs) - Choi Min-jun (1 inning, no runs) maintained a no-run performance to secure the team victory. At the plate, Han Yu-seom hit his 10th home run of the season, becoming the game-winning hitter. Eredia had 3 hits in 5 at-bats with 2 RBIs. Ko Myung-jun also contributed with a multi-hit performance.
Lee Soong-yong said, "When we look at the games we lose, there are many scenes where defensive mistakes occur. Yesterday's game went almost perfectly as we wanted. Using (Noh) Gyeong-eun early to stop the central lineup matched well, and (Han) Yu-seom's turnaround home run led to (Kim) Min and (Lee) Ro-woon. It was fortunate that we didn't go to (Jo) Byeong-hyeon as more runs came in."
Regarding Han Yu-seom, who hit a crucial home run, Lee Soong-yong said, "This year, having Yu-seom makes me feel secure. Although (Choi) Jeong and (Guillermo) Eredia were absent, Yu-seom struggled a bit in the early stages but stabilized as the games went on. Thanks to that, we managed to stay strong and not collapse. (Ko) Myung-jun also, in my view, is vastly lacking, but still did well to back up Yu-seom. I believe all players have come together during tough times to reach this point. I want to express my gratitude and commendation to the players for that."
The KBO announced several measures to cope with the heat on the 8th. One of them is that the cleaning time after the 5th inning can be extended to a maximum of 10 minutes by mutual agreement of both teams. Accordingly, SSG and KT extended the cleaning time from the previous 4 minutes to 6 minutes during the last game.
Regarding the effect of these measures, Lee Soong-yong said, "To be honest, I'm not sure if they are effective. It seems that 2 minutes is not felt much. I feel that neither I nor the players really noticed it. The weather is extremely hot. We have been focusing on player health management, discussing a lot with the training part and coaching staff. I believe the best method is to reduce the training load. So today, we conducted training indoors."
SSG announced the starting lineup for the day as Choi Ji-hoon (center fielder) - Guillermo Eredia (left fielder) - Choi Jeong (designated hitter) - Han Yu-seom (right fielder) - Ko Myung-jun (first baseman) - Park Seong-han (shortstop) - Ahn Sang-hyeon (third baseman) - Jeong Jun-jae (second baseman) - Jo Hyung-woo (catcher). The starting pitcher is Moon Seung-won.
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