'Shock ball ball ball ball ball ball ball' Kim Young-gyu's pushing → 12-pitch steel plate, 'Why' couldn't you replace it even with the shaking control [WBC]

*This content was translated by AI.

Kim Young-kyu (26, NC Dinos), South Korea's left-hander bullpen resource, bowed his head due to poor control in his fateful Korea-Japan match.

Kim Young-kyu took the mound in relief in the seventh inning against Japan in the second Group C match of the first round of the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) finals at Tokyo Dome in Japan on the 7th, and was shaken by one hit, two walks and one run (one earned run) without catching an out count. While facing three batters, he recorded a total of 12 pitches, of which eight were balls.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, when South Korea and Japan were tied 5-5. a Japanese attack.

South Korea replaced the pitcher from Ko Woo-suk to Park Young-hyun. Park Young-hyun dedicated a walk to leadoff hitter Maki after a seven-pitch game. Here, Japan put in a runner, Maki. Genda, who continued to enter the next at-bat, succeeded the sacrifice bunt to first base, becoming a one-out runner.

The next batter is Sato. Park Young-hyun caught Sato by inducing him to ground out to first base. In the meantime, Makihara, a runner on second base, settled on third base. The next batter is Ohtani. At this time, the Korean bench's choice was an automatic four pitches. With the first base empty, there was no need to overdo it.

Kondo Genske, the second batter, then took the batter's box. Before this at-bat, Kondo had been hitless in three at-bats. At this time, the Korean bench conducted a pitcher replacement. Instead of putting Park Young-hyun down, he put Kim Young-gyu on the mound.

Unfortunately, however, Kim Young-gyu's control did not work at all. As soon as he took the mound, he threw three balls in a row and caught one strike, but he threw the ball for the fifth time and gave up a walk. Kim Young-kyu, who caused the bases-loaded crisis.

The next batter is Suzuki. Kim Young-gyu's control still did not listen. He threw two consecutive balls again, driving him to a disadvantageous ball count of 2-0. At this time, catcher Park Dong-won visited the mound once and talked about something. However, Kim Young-gyu's control was rarely caught. The third ball, too. He hit one strike on the fourth pitch, but gave up a pushy walk through the fifth pitch. It was a moment when the tight tie balance was broken.

Although his control was shaky, he could not replace it according to the WBC rule that he had to face at least three batters when taking the mound.

a 5-6 deficit. Kim Young-kyu threw a strike at the first pitch against Yoshida, the next batter. The second ball. The ball thrown by Kim Young-kyu headed for a strike course over the high strike zone. However, Yoshida hit it properly and connected it to a timely hit with two RBIs. In the meantime, third baseman Ohtani and second baseman Kondo homered, and the score widened to 5-8.

In the end, that's it. The Korean bench put in Kim Taek-yeon as soon as Kim Young-kyu finished his third batter opponent. Kim Taek-yeon struck out Okamoto and overcame the crisis without additional runs.

Meanwhile, Kim Young-kyu took the mound in 45 games in the 2025 season, marking 4 wins, 3 losses and 21 holds with a 2.86 ERA. In a total of 44 innings, he recorded 40 hits (three home runs), 18 walks, 35 strikeouts, 17 runs (14 earned runs) and one blon save, 1.32 on-base allowed per inning (WHIP) and a 0.253 hit rate.

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*This content was translated by AI.