Lotte, who is all-in on fall baseball, threw a game. Once started it’s good.메이저놀이터

On the 6th, Lotte achieved a great record of team no-hitter in the match against Sajik SSG. This is the third record in KBO league history. The main role of the team’s no-hitter was Aaron Wilkerson, who came out as a starting pitcher and allowed only one walk in seven innings and pitched without a run.

Wilkerson recorded 95 pitches through the 7th inning, but Lotte changed pitchers with Koo Seung-min, a member of Pilseungjoo, in the top of the 8th inning. The result is a great success. After Koo Seung-min blocked the 8th inning scoreless, Lotte took a 1-0 lead with Yoon Dong-hee’s superior and timely double at the end of the 8th inning, put finishing pitcher Kim Won-joong on the mound in the top of the 9th inning to secure a 1-point lead, and even embraced the team’s record of no-hit no-run. .

Still, I was curious about the reason why he boldly replaced the starting pitcher who was progressing with a record of no hits and no runs. Lotte coach Larry Sutton said ahead of the match against Gocheok Kiwoom on the 8th, “As a manager, if a starting pitcher continues a no-hitter, it’s right to push him until he gets a hit, but Wilkerson has already started on Tuesday (August 1), making his second pitch a week. It was the mound. Also, it was the first time I had thrown close to 100 pitches in Korea, so I changed the pitcher,” he explained the reason for replacing Wilkerson during a no-hitter.

There is one more reason for this. Sutton added, “We made the decision to replace Wilkerson because we need Wilkerson’s health through the end of the season.” Lotte decided to appoint Wilkerson and another foreign pitcher, Charlie Barnes, as a ‘mound after a 4-day break’ system, throwing an all-in game in fall baseball. Because of this, Wilkerson’s no-hitter challenge was not a priority.

“Wilkerson and Barnes will now have a four-day break to mound schedule,” said Sutton. talked

Lotte caused a stir while running at the top until May, but is currently sluggish in 7th place. Lotte, which is behind 5th place Doosan by 4.5 games, needs a breakthrough. Wilkerson and Barnes, who are currently in the best condition in the starting rotation, have decided to throw the game.

Since joining Lotte, Wilkerson has appeared in 3 games and is showing pitching beyond expectations with 1 win and an average ERA of 2.50. Wilkerson, who made his KBO league debut against Doosan in Jamsil on the 26th of last month, was named the winning pitcher with 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs in 5 innings. ) was also written. In addition, in the match against Sajik SSG on the 6th, he became the main player in the team’s no-hitter, so it can be seen that his adaptation to the KBO league is proceeding smoothly.

Barnes is being reborn as an ace in the second half. Barnes, who did not live up to expectations with 5 wins, 6 losses and an ERA of 4.57 until the first half, continued his pitching with especially severe ups and downs and burned the bench. are showing

Looking at the second half of the season alone, the average ERA is in the best condition, ranking third after Ko Young-pyo (KT, 0.82) and Thomas Panoni (KIA, 1.47). Even in the match against Gocheok Kiwoom on the 8th, Barnes showed a good pitch against Woo-jin An, one of the best pitchers in the KBO League, in 5⅔ innings, 5 hits, 2 walks, 7 strikeouts and no runs. Although Barnes did not become the winning pitcher, Lotte won 3-1 and took a valuable victory.

On this day, too, Barnes had 93 pitches, less than 100, but Lotte made a knife-like pitcher change. Barnes’ next appearance is scheduled to be against Sajik KIA on the 13th. Coach Sutton said, “I always manage the number of pitches of starting pitchers. Of course, I will not drop Wilkerson and Barnes early every time. But there will be no games where I throw more than 120 pitches.”

It may be a risky gamble to decide to adjust the pitching intervals of two of the players included in the starting rotation at the point of reaching the mid-to-late half of the regular season. However, Lotte started pitching members Park Se-woong and Na Kyun-an, who were selected for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games baseball team, and Park Se-woong struggled with 3 losses and an average ERA of 6.06 in the second half, and Na Kyun-an was diagnosed with a sprained left hamstring and was out of the first team. If something goes wrong, the starting pitching team could collapse completely, so it was necessary to prepare a countermeasure.

Will Lotte’s fall baseball all-in game result in success? Lotte threw a game-winning number that entrusted the two most reliable pitchers in the starting pitching staff with the heavy responsibility of ‘starting after a 4-day break’. Still a good start.