Kang Hyo-jong, a right-handed pitcher born in 2002 for the LG Twins, failed to laugh in his 5th start of the season.
Kang Hyo-jong started the home game against the KIA Tigers in the 2023 professional baseball KBO League held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 29th and pitched 54 balls in 2 innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, 2 runs and 1 earned run.
It’s still early days, but Kang Hyo-jong is one of LG’s hit products this year. He was dropped as the 5th starter before the opening game, and his ERA was only 5.52 before this KIA game, but he was evaluated as preparing a foothold for the team to win.
However, Kang Hyo-jong was unable to play long innings after two misfortunes in the defense that day. Coming off the mound with the team trailing 0-2, he will suffer the first loss of the season (1 win) if LG loses without a tie.
He failed to avoid a run from the beginning of the first inning. He caught Ryu Ji-hyeok with a second baseman grounder, but Ko Jong-wook got a left-handed hit. Then, Ko Jong-wook attempted to steal second base, where the LG infield team’s mistake overlapped and settled on third base. LG catcher Park Dong-won threw the ball to second base, but neither shortstop Oh Ji-hwan nor second baseman Seo Geon-chang made base cover. Hyojong Kang, who was shaken, eventually gave up the home to Jongwook Ko, committing a balk.
Fortunately, Kang Hyo-jong immediately found stability by inducing the follow-up hitter, Kim Sun-bin, to a second baseman ground ball. Afterwards, he got a heavy hit from Choi Hyeong-woo, but ended the inning by handling Hwang Dae-in with a fly to left field.
The bad luck continued into the second inning. After allowing Socrates Brito to hit a double, Kang Hyo-jong seemed to find a sense of stability until he caught Socrates rushing to third base by inducing Lee Chang-jin with a shortstop ground ball. However, after that, he gave Lee Chang-jin a second base steal and Han Seung-taek even walked, leading to 1st and 2nd base.
He then led Park Chan-ho to a shortstop ground ball and increased the count by one out, but in the process of defense, the second baseman made a throwing error and had to watch as runner Lee Chang-jin stepped home. It was comforting to prevent an additional run by tying Ryu Ji-hyeok with a fly in left field.먹튀검증
After completely giving KIA the atmosphere in the beginning, LG replaced the pitcher with left-hander Lee Woo-chan in the beginning of the 3rd inning. However, Lee Woo-chan was immediately hit by a two-run arch by Hwang Dae-in. At the end of the third inning, LG trails 0-4.