LG Twins’ foreign ace Casey Kelly became a losing pitcher in his first appearance in the second half. Kelly started in a home game against the SSG Landers in Jamsil on the 21st and recorded six hits (one home run), two walks, four strikeouts and five runs in five innings, recording his sixth loss of the season (6 wins) with a 4-6 loss. His ERA was worse at 4.65. 21st out of 22 pitchers who have exceeded the prescribed innings. It is worse than Lotte Dan Straily’s 4.37, who broke up after the first half.
He gave up points in the second, fourth, and fifth innings out of five innings. In particular, the part where LG’s batters lost points immediately after scoring and the part where they gave up points after hitting a timely hit after two outs was not like an ace. Ha Jae-hoon hit a double in the top of the second inning with a 1-0 lead, and Kim Min-sik hit a hit and gave up the tie after two outs. In the top of the fourth inning, Ha Jae-hoon gave up a walk and allowed a steal after two outs, and Kim Sung-hyun hit a left-center double to make it 1-2. Lee Jae-won’s timely hit in the bottom of the fourth inning tied the score 2-2, but Choi Jung hit an RBI double in the top of the fifth inning with two outs and second base, and Choi Joo-hwan immediately hit a superior two-run shot. It moved away 2-5.
LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop said on the 22nd, “It was okay until Choi Jung hit a double.” If it was a one-point difference, our batters could have done it. However, Choi Joo-hwan hit a home run and it became difficult as he widened the gap by three points. A changeup was selected as the key point of Kelly’s pitching before taking the mound. This is because the problem was that the change-up hit rate was high at around 30%. Head coach Yeom Kyung-yeop suggested dropping the change-up speed through the interview, and Kelly also said he would accept it and try.
However, the change-up was not the problem on this day. Of the six hits he hit, four were fastballs. Curve and two-seam also got one hit each. On this day, Kelly threw 92 pitches, 25 fastball, 27 curves, 16 two-seam, 14 cutters, and 10 changeups with a maximum speed of 150 kilometers. Kelly pitching’s unusual point this season is that the curve has increased while throwing fewer changeups. As the change-up is not that good, the curve frequency has increased because the only pitch that can be dropped is the curve.
Coach Yeom said, “In the end, it’s a command. He said, “I’ve had more mistakes, but after five years of throwing, batters have also become good at making mistakes.” After throwing for five years in Korea, hitters have all figured out Kelly’s pitching style and are used to it, and they are not good at commanding, so they think it is a lot of hits at important moments.
Kelly has changeups and curves that reduce and drop speed on fastballs, sinkers, and cutters, both curves and changeups are fast in the 130km range. Since curves and changeups can also be dealt with at the timing of fastballs, it should be said that a hit will come out in a mistake. The reason why coach Yeom asked to lower the change-up to 132 kilometers is to make a difference in speed difference in speed.
LG’s current situation is not very optimistic, given that he is a warm-hearted ace who has been on the mound for four years. Even if the batters and bullpen are good, the 4th and 5th starters are still unstable, so you have to win a lot when Kelly, Plutko, and Lim Chan-kyu come out. If Kelly goes to the unstable side from here, LG’s No. 1 Mercury cannot be guaranteed.
BY: 토토