"Playing with ABS." Sajik Skubal comes to Jamsil! Lotte's Kim Jin-wook, 6 ⅔ scoreless innings, KKKK → The winning team couldn't even stand it [the scene of Jamsil]

*This content was translated by AI.

Sajik-dong Scuval has come to Jamsil Baseball Stadium. Lotte Giants left-hander Kim Jin-wook (24) overpowered the winning team LG Twins' slugging line with excellent control.

Kim Jin-wook led Lotte's 2-0 lead by achieving two consecutive quality starts (more than six innings and less than three earned runs) against the LG Twins in six ⅔ innings, three hits, two walks, and five strikeouts in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season away game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 15th.

It is Kim Jin-wook who showed the best pitching in two consecutive games. Kim Jin-wook succeeded in starting a dominant start (more than eight innings and less than one earned run) with three hits (one homer) and one walk and six strikeouts in eight innings against KT Wiz in Busan on the 8th. Against the defending champion, he continued his momentum in the previous game. He overwhelmed LG's batters by throwing a total of 101 pitches, including 49 fastball balls, 29 sliders, 12 change-up balls and 11 curves. The maximum fastball speed was 150 kilometers per hour.

There was not even a significant crisis. After receiving a lucky infield hit by Austin Dean in the first inning, he continued his streak of hitting 12 consecutive batters. He also completely escaped the prejudice that he is weak in left-handed hitters. Before the game, Kim Jin-wook was weak with a career left-handed batter hitting rate of 0.286 and an on-base plus slugging rate of 0.846.

He silenced left-handed hitters with a blade control that seemed to be playing with the automatic pitching decision system (ABS). Against Hong Chang-ki in the second inning, he hit a 148km/h fastball exactly in the outer corner and struck out a rookie. He only showed Shin Min-jae with a fastball and slider in the third inning, and struck out the rookie with a falling curve in the middle.

He allowed consecutive on-base hits for the first time in the bottom of the fifth inning. Hong Chang-ki hit left-handed after two outs and Park Dong-won walked. However, he threw another fastball that hit the outside of the strike zone to Shin Min-jae to draw a rookie strikeout.

LG, which won eight consecutive games, also tried to bring down Kim Jin-wook somehow. When leadoff hitter Oh Ji-hwan walked in the bottom of the seventh inning with Lotte leading 1-0, Koo Bon-hyuk sent Oh Ji-hwan to the third base with a sacrifice bunt and Hong Chang-ki a ground ball to the first base. Here, Lotte manager Kim Tae-hyung made a strong move to put rookie Park Jung-min in. Park Jung-min bravely drew Park Dong-won's swing and miss with an outside change-up to keep Kim Jin-wook's winning requirements.

It was a pitch that could see the fruits of a prospect who constantly tried. Kim Jin-wook has not stood out for five years due to poor ball control after being nominated by Lotte as the No. 1 pick in the second round of the 2021 KBO Rookie Draft after graduating from Suwon Singok Elementary, Chuncheon Middle School, and Gangneung High School.

However, he even searched and analyzed the pitching video of Ryu Hyun-jin (39, Hanwha Eagles) and Tarik Skubal (30, Detroit Tigers), the winner of the Cy Young Award in the U.S. Major League Baseball, and worked hard to improve the breaking ball. As a result, the winning team, who came out to attack him with determination, also showed overwhelming pitching and expressed hope.

On this day, Lotte formed a lineup of Victor Reyes (left fielder), Son Ho-young (center fielder), Noh Jin-hyuk (first baseman), Han Dong-hee (third baseman), Jeon Joon-woo (designated hitter), Yoon Dong-hee (right fielder), Han Tae-yang (second baseman), Son Sung-bin (poster), and Jeon Min-jae (striker). The starting pitcher is left-hander Kim Jin-wook.

Against this, LG consisted of Park Hae-min (center fielder), Moon Sung-joo (left wing), Austin Dean (designated hitter), Moon Bo-kyung (first baseman), Oh Ji-hwan (striker), Koo Bon-hyuk (third baseman), Hong Chang-ki (right wing), Park Dong-won (captor), and Shin Min-jae (second baseman). The starting pitcher is left-hander Lachlan Wells.

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*This content was translated by AI.