“Gwangju needs to play some games...”
Youm Kyoung-youb, the manager of the Korea Professional Baseball LG Twins, expressed regret over the continuous rainouts of the KIA Tigers' games. Due to the rain cancellations, they will sequentially meet Lotte's 1st to 3rd starters and KIA's 1st to 3rd starters next week.
On the 19th at Jamsil Stadium, news of the rain cancellation reached Youm during an interview with reporters. Before 4 p.m., following the Daegu Kiwoom-Samsung game, the Gwangju NC-KIA game was also canceled. The southern region has been experiencing record rainfall for three consecutive days.
Youm sighed, saying, “Gwangju needs to play some games, but (if the cancellations continue), the 1st to 3rd starters will all come to us.”
Still, he anticipated that the 1st starter Nail would pitch against NC on the 20th. However, Nail has been announced as the starting pitcher for three consecutive days from the 17th to the 19th and has been making preparations as a starter. The starting pitcher for the game on the 20th could change.
Youm noted, “If it’s canceled at this time, the starters probably haven’t warmed up, so they might not come out tomorrow. Surely, at this time, a starter would not have warmed up.” This is because the decision to cancel the game was made early and the starter’s routine likely was not followed.
However, after the rain cancellation, KIA announced that their starting pitcher for the 20th would be Lee Eui-ri instead of Nail. This is the comeback game for Lee Eui-ri, who had elbow surgery last year and has been rehabilitating for nearly a year. NC has also prepared for three consecutive games with Riley as the starting pitcher, but they announced that Shin Min-hyuk would start on the 20th.
Youm's expectations were off, and next week, LG is likely to face Nail, Kim Do-hyun, and Yang Hyun-jong during their away game in Gwangju. With KIA's foreign pitcher Olmer out due to injury, they will now face KIA's 1st to 3rd starters, which has become the worst-case scenario.
LG will play against Lotte over the weekend and next week, the starting rotation against KIA will include Song Seung-gi, Chirinos, and Son Ju-yeong. Youm mentioned, “I think Son Ju-yeong will pitch well in the latter half of the season. Hernandez and Chirinos need to improve. When the starters pitch six innings, our winning probability is nearly above 70%.”
He added, “Things we need to pay attention to in the second half are that when the starter collapses before the 5th inning, we need to rely on our middle pitchers to hold the game to eventually improve our ranking. We'll focus on that. If Deok-joo, Hyun-sik, Myung-geun, and Young-woo perform well, the probability of winning those games also increases, and we can reduce the overload on the (bullpen).”
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