"You're not the type to get scared," Park Dong-won proved his faith! LG's Ham Deok-ju endured a "9th-inning, no outs, bases-loaded → error → error" nightmare and recorded his first save in 1,008 days [Suwon field]

*This content was translated by AI.

LG Twins left-hander Ham Deok-ju (31) held on to a one-run lead despite consecutive infield errors and saved his team from a losing streak.

On the 30th, LG defeated KT Wiz 6-5 in an away game of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season held at Suwon KT Wiz Park, located in Joyeon-dong, Jangang-gu, Suwon Special City, Gyeonggi Province.

With this win, LG ended its four-game losing streak against KT this season, broke its three-game losing streak, and improved its record to 17 wins and 10 losses, narrowing the gap with the first-place KT (19 wins, 9 losses) to 1.5 games.

The turning point came in the bottom of the 9th inning when LG led 6-5. KT's leadoff batter, Choi Won-jun, drew a walk after a 10-pitch battle. Choi has been a formidable opponent, batting over .400 against KT in the past three years, and recorded two hits and three RBIs today, proving he was no easy matchup.

More hardship awaited Ham Deok-ju. Shortstop Oh Ji-hwan failed to field a ground ball hit by Kim Hyun-soo on the first try, resulting in a bases-loaded situation with no outs. Nevertheless, Ham Deok-ju kept his pitches low and induced consecutive infield flyouts from Jang Sung-woo and Sam Hilliard. During Hilliard's at-bat, Oh Ji-hwan and Cheon Seong-ho collided and lost the ball, leaving fans breathless. With the lingering shadow of three consecutive walk-off losses, it seemed the game might spiral out of control once again.

However, Ham Deok-ju forced the final batter, Kim Sang-soo, into a favorable 0 balls, 2 strikes count with a changeup and a fastball. The fifth pitch, which he relentlessly targeted on the outside corner, was hit weakly by Kim Sang-soo's bat and drifted harmlessly to the left-center field, where it was caught by the glove. In the end, LG escaped the losing streak after a harrowing struggle.

After the game, Ham Deok-ju met with reporters and said, "Honestly, since the batter who hit the walk-off yesterday (29th) was the one, I thought it was most advantageous to pitch low and induce a ground ball. Also, when Park Dong-won came onto the mound and said, 'You're not the type to get scared, throw with confidence,' it gave me a lot of strength."

He added, "It wasn't that I pitched well, but rather that I was lucky. I tried to let batters hit rather than trying to get strikeouts myself, and fortunately, that approach led to a good result."

In this series, the first since existing closer Yoo Young-chan departed, LG clearly felt the void. They suffered three consecutive walk-off losses, and due to the difficult games throughout the series, they could not deploy their usual reliable bullpen trio of Jang Hyun-sik, Kim Young-woo, Kim Jin-seong, and Woo Kang-hoon, who had pitched on consecutive days.

With only young pitchers available, the veteran Ham Deok-ju stepped up. Ham said, "I knew I would have to go out since the reliable bullpen was resting and there were many young players in difficult situations."

He continued, "The relief pitchers were really struggling with the three consecutive walk-off losses. They prepared well to do better, but the results didn't come out, so they were upset. Still, since we are still in the upper ranks, we tried to stay in good spirits. The position players also gave us many encouraging words and are doing their best to keep things moving forward."

It was also a personally meaningful save. Ham Deok-ju's last save was on July 27 during the Suwon KT match in the championship season, making this his first save at the same venue in 1,008 days.

Recovering from a slump in mid-April and returning to form has been a great boost for LG. Ham said, "It's not that my skills have improved; honestly, they're the same. The most regrettable thing was giving up a large number of runs all at once in a single day. Still, I didn't give walks or load the bases myself, so I tried not to worry too much about it. I did my best to pitch and took responsibility for the results."

He added, "Recently, everyone has been struggling, so we all tried to act as if nothing was wrong. However, when I watched the training sessions, I saw that players who had been performing poorly were trying even harder, which made me think we could become an even better team. I also decided that instead of being greedy for any position, I would try to throw my pitches without feeling too much pressure."

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*This content was translated by AI.