Professional baseball player Lee Ro-un (21) of the SSG Landers expressed his desire to lead the team's fall baseball in the second half of the season.
Lee appeared as a relief pitcher for the Dream All-Star during the '2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO All-Star Game' held on the 12th at Daejeon Hanwha Life Eagles Park, recording 1 inning, 1 hit allowed, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, and no earned runs.
However, Lee Ro-un, who joined SSG after being drafted in the 1st round (5th overall) of the 2023 rookie draft, struggled during his first two seasons, posting poor statistics with a record of 7 wins, 4 losses, 14 holds, 1 save, and an earned run average of 5.78 over 113 games (113⅔ innings).
But this season, he has completely transformed and secured a spot in SSG's winning group. He finished the first half of the season with a record of 2 wins, 4 losses, 16 holds, 1 save, and an earned run average of 1.37 in 47 games (46 innings), ranking 6th in the league for holds and 2nd in his team. It was, in many ways, a natural result for Lee to be selected as an All-Star by the coach's recommendation.
In an interview on the 12th, Lee noted, "I don't know when I'll get to the All-Star Game, but I'm really happy. I want to have fun with good players. I don't necessarily think I was selected automatically; I was just lucky to be here for the first time."
"It seems correct that good results have come this year," Lee said with a smile. "I achieved better results than I expected. The team is currently in 6th place, but I believe the second half is more important. I will endure and do my best to improve the team's performance."
This year, Lee's improvement is attributed to adjustments in his fastball grip, the addition of a slider, and tremendous effort. SSG manager Lee Seung-yong praised Lee's transformation, stating, "The first step was changing the grip on his fastball, which has proven successful. The second was going to the KK camp with (Kim) Gwang-hyun to learn the slider. And, his personal effort. Lee recognized his shortcomings and actively sought to learn. His attitude has completely changed. Regardless of whether it's a throwing day or not, he stays to train until the end."
Lee stated, "I didn’t think I would do this well," and added, "I’m really happy to achieve such good results. Since I've done well so far, I want to work hard in the second half to finish with good results. My biggest goal is for the team to make it to fall baseball. I also want to maintain an earned run average below 2.00 and achieve over 20, 25 holds."
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