Eui-ri Lee (21), the next-generation ace, broke the KIA Tigers’ 5-game losing streak with her excellent pitching and crisis management skills.
Lee Eui-ri won the season’s 2nd win (1 loss) with 3 hits, 3 walks, 8 strikeouts, and no runs in 5⅔ innings in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO league regular season away match against the Lotte Giants at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on the 19th. His season ERA went down from 2.77 to 1.93.
KIA won Lotte 6-0 with Eui-ri Lee’s good pitching and big innings in the 4th inning. Although they could not escape from the bottom with 4 wins and 9 losses, they escaped from 5 consecutive losses.
On this day, Lee Eui-ri showed off the best pitching of the season. He reduced the number of walks he gave up from 5 or more to 3 every game, and there were many balls that crossed the strike zone instead of missing balls for a long time. Strikeouts were also the most in a single game this season.
Even though the 3rd inning, which was the biggest crisis, was faced with Lotte’s cleanup trio, Jack Rex struck out 3 pitches, and Jeon Jun-woo and An Chi-hong struck out 4 pitches each. All three strikeouts were turned into a miss, heating up the KIA dugout. In particular, the balls that struck out Jun-Woo Jeon and Chi-Hong Ahn were all high fastballs, and were the best balls to come out of that situation.
The impressive part is not only this.먹튀검증 On this day, Eui-ri Lee threw a total of 101 balls, with 2 outs in the 6th inning, recording a maximum speed of 153 km. Of these, 59 fastballs (25 sliders, 14 changeups, 3 curves) were thrown, and in the 6th inning, Chihong Ahn threw 148 km/h 4 times (based on KBO text relay), and Jinhyeok Noh struck out on a swing and struck out the last 101. The second ball came out 146 km.
Even based on the KBO official record company Sports 2 I Pitch Tracking System (PTS), Eui-ri Lee’s fastball restraint was 145.3 km per hour in the first inning and 146.3 km in the 6th inning, rather it was faster at the end of the pitch.
What is heating up the KBO League at the beginning of this season is the major league level restraints of Moon Dong-ju (20, Hanwha Eagles) and An Woo-jin (24, Kiwoom Heroes). Moon Dong-joo threw a fastball at 160.1km per hour against KIA in Gwangju on the 12th, becoming the first Korean pitcher to break the 160km barrier based on PTS. Until then, it was a record reserved for foreign pitchers such as Redames and Leeds (LG Twins).
Not to be outdone, An Woo-jin also threw a ball at 159.8 km per hour against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil the next day, the 13th. An Woo-jin is also a pitcher who gave the first record to Moon Dong-ju on a PTS basis, but unofficially threw 160km several times. On the 19th, Kim Seo-hyun (19, Hanwha), the first overall in the 2023 rookie draft, joined the light speed ball war by throwing 157.9 km per hour based on the PTS in his KBO League debut.
While all three of them are right-handers, Lee Eui-ri is a left-handed pitcher. Moreover, at the age of 21, the speed of the fastball is increasing every year, and in the last 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) Japan game, the ball was sprayed at a maximum speed of 155 km per hour.
But average velocity is just as important as maximum velocity for a starting pitcher. No matter how fast the ball is thrown at the beginning of the game, it is difficult to endure many innings if the speed and pitch are poor in the second half. Eui-ri Lee is one of the players who were greedy for average velocity rather than maximum velocity in interviews. Even though he has passed 100 pitches, the fact that he maintains the same speed as in the 1st inning means that he still has strength and room for growth. This is why Eui-Ri Lee’s 148 km/h in the 6th is as meaningful as Dong-Joo Moon and Woo-Jin Ahn’s 160 km.