"I trust you and threw it."" Golgle second baseman - WBC hero also believed in the frozen outside rookie strikeout back story, Lotte 2002 born battery believed in each other

*This content was translated by AI.

Lotte Giants 2002 duo Kim Jin-wook (24) and Son Sung-bin (24) collaborated with the winning team LG Twins based on strong trust.

Lotte won 2-0 against the LG Twins in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season visit game held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 15th. With this, Lotte, which turned the series back to square one, escaped its second consecutive loss and jumped to a tie for seventh with six wins and nine losses.

Last year's champion LG was the league's No. 1 team with eight consecutive wins this season. It was hard to find such a team being careless, deploying a large number of left-handed hitters in the starting lineup to shoot Kim Jin-wook, who was weak in left-handed hitters.

However, catcher Son Sung-bin's bold lead and elaborate control of Kim Jin-wook distorted all LG's plans. Kim Jin-wook threw a total of 101 pitches, including 49 pitches (49 pitches) with a maximum speed of 150 kilometers per hour, slider (29 pitches), change-up (12 pitches), and curve (11 pitches), and became the winning pitcher with three hits, two walks, and five strikeouts in six ⅔ innings.

Son Sung-bin was active with one hit and one RBI in two at-bats, including the winning home run. Kim Jin-wook (6 ⅔ innings), Park Jung-min (1 inning), Kim Won-joong (⅓ innings), and Choi Jun-yong (1 inning) led the pitching staff to score no runs at home.

Baekmi was the moment to strike out the best hitters in the league. The start was Hong Chang-ki's at-bat in the bottom of the second inning. Kim Jin-wook quickly caught two strikes with his body's fastball and slider. After dropping a changeup once, he threw a full 148km/h fastball outside to strike out the rookie.

KBO Golden Glove second baseman Shin Min-jae and Korea's leading player in the quarterfinals of the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) were also helpless. Kim Jin-wook and Son Sung-bin made 2B2S by throwing only fastball and sliders to Shin Min-jae in the bottom of the third inning. Then out of nowhere, he dropped a curve in the middle and struck out his ninth pitch.

I didn't care about the crisis. He met Shin Min-jae again in the bottom of the fifth inning with two outs and runners on first and second bases. Again, he made 2B2S with a fastball and a slider, and threw a fastball slightly over the boundary outside the strike zone at the position where he threw the slider to freeze Shin Min-jae. The scene of throwing sliders and fastball in turn at the boundary of the outer strike zone to strike out the rookie came out the same in Moon Bo-kyung's at-bat in the bottom of the sixth inning.

After the game, I could hear the back story of the rookie strikeout. Kim Jin-wook said, "LG hitters did not respond to the low ball. I wanted to mix the breaking balls in the middle, but Sungbin tried to compete mainly with the fastball. Most of the strikeouts were led by Sung-bin, he said. "When I caught Shin Min-jae (at the end of the fifth inning), I actually wanted to go one more curve. But Sungbin signed the fastball one more time. So I trusted Sungbin and threw it," he said with strength.

In response, Son Sung-bin said, "Rooking strikeouts are not something we can do. A ball across the border line doesn't mean you can throw it just because you want to. 10 out of 100 won't come in. I think it's because I lived a nice life." "I actually thought it was a ball during Shin Min-jae's time, but a strike call came out. "The dopamine exploded tremendously," he said with an awkward smile.

Before the game, Kim Jin-wook's overall hit rate against left-handed hitters was 0.286 and his on-base plus slugging rate was 0.846. However, it was different on this day. He also struck out the left-handed batter by striking out with a fastball and a curve.

Kim Jin-wook said, "The reason why I haven't thrown well to the left-handed batter's body is because I thought the risk of long shots was a little higher. I thought it would be more effective if I threw the slider outside, but today (15th) we played in various ways, including changeups and curves, from the analysis of power."

"Sliders have been counting or using winning shots since last year. However, in the end, I think I was able to distract the batters' attention by knowing how to throw the changeup properly."

The new Lotte homeowner wanted Lotte pitchers to believe in their strengths a little more like Kim Jin-wook. Son Sung-bin said, "Today, like the last game, I tried to focus on (Kim) Jin-wook's strengths over the opponent's batter. Jin-wook not only controlled the ball today, but also the ball itself was so good. I was able to take the count fight to my advantage, and I was able to run the game aggressively. Above all, he credited his friend Kim Jin-wook, saying, "I was able to win the team by throwing calmly without being shaken by the two crisis situations."

"There are so many good pitchers in our Lotte Giants. Not only the starting team but also the middle players are all good players. They have such good pitching and ability, but I want them to believe in themselves a little more and throw it with the mindset that I will win," he stressed.

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*This content was translated by AI.