Kiwoom Heroes’ Chung Chan-heon (33) collapsed after allowing six consecutive batters to hit.
Chung took the mound against the Lotte Giants in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Tuesday, giving up five runs on 10 hits with one walk and two strikeouts in 3⅔ innings.
After giving up a leadoff single to Kim Min-seok in the first inning, Jung got Ahn Chi-hong to fly out to center field, but was hit by Lee Jung-hoon to put runners on first and second. After striking out Niko Goodrum, Chung got Yoon Dong-hee to fly out to center field to get out of the jam.
With Kiwoom leading 3-0, Chung got Jeon Jun-woo to ground out to shortstop in the second inning. However, Park Seung-wook singled and stole second, and Noh Ji-hyuk fouled off the first baseman to put runners on second and third. With one out in the inning, Chung surrendered six straight hits to Jung Chan-hun, Kim Min-seok, Ahn Chi-hong, Lee Jeong-hoon, Gudrum and Yoon Dong-hee to quickly turn the game into a 3-5 deficit. He managed to get Jeon Jun-woo to fly out to center field to end the second inning, but Lotte had already taken advantage of the batting order.
After striking out the side in the third inning, Jung struck out the leadoff batter, Kim Min-seok, in the fourth. He then walked Ahn Chi-hong, but was able to prevent him from stealing second base. In the bottom of the inning, Jung gave up another double, this time to Lee Jung-hoon, and was eventually replaced by Yang Hyun to end the game. Yang prevented Chung from scoring another run. However, the bullpen continued to give up runs and Kiwoom lost 8-12.
Chung, who threw 83 pitches, used a slider (28), curve (25), two-seam (20), and fork (10) against Lotte batters. His fastball touched 137 kilometers per hour. After struggling with his fastball, Chung tried a variety of other pitches to get Lotte batters out, including a 69km/h fastball, but the results were not as good.
Kiwoom’s starting pitchers have been struggling lately. With Choi Won-tae gone to LG via trade, ace Ahn Woo-jin has been scratched from the first team roster due to injury concerns, and Ian McKinney and Jang Jae-young have lost pace. On top of that, Chung Chan-heon pitched poorly, tying his season-high for hits in a game.
Kiwoom, who narrowly escaped a nine-game losing streak but were swept in a three-game home series, will need a breakthrough from the starting lineup to turn things around. 카지노사이트