'ERA 5.77' foreign investor troubled by 'hit-by-pitch trauma', Ho-jun says "It's not intentional to hit batters" — the answer lies in the two-seam fastball

*This content was translated by AI.

"He felt burdened and stopped throwing the two-seam fastball, but we decided to change that by having him throw it again."

In just five games in April, four pitches hit batters. While the two-seam fastball, which attacks the batter's body, is his primary weapon, his control wavered, leading to an increase in hit-by-pitches, and he inevitably became intimidated. However, he concluded that avoiding the issue would not yield a solution.

Lee Ho-jun (50), manager of NC Dinos, met with reporters at Changwon NC Park on the 27th ahead of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League home game against Hanwha Eagles, stating, "Taylor will take the mound on Sunday (the 31st). His velocity has been good recently, and he has been striking out many batters. He has improved significantly."

Curtis Taylor (31), who started the previous day, allowed one run due to a defensive error in the first inning but delivered clean pitching through the second inning. Although the game was threatened by rain and the situation became ambiguous, it was decided not to adjust the rotation since he was already scheduled to start twice a week through the 31st.

Taylor has shown some disappointment this season, appearing in nine games, pitching 43⅔ innings, with a record of 3 wins and 4 losses, and an ERA of 5.77.

He performed well in the first two games after the season opener, but in the following three games, he allowed 10 runs over 12 innings. In the game against Lotte Giants on the 13th, he lasted five innings but surrendered eight runs (seven earned), leading to his collapse.

Manager Lee Ho-jun identified the cause as the retention of his primary weapon, the two-seam fastball. The two-seam fastball, which is effective at inducing groundouts by targeting the batter's body, suffered from control issues, resulting in frequent hit-by-pitches. Consequently, he decided to hide this pitch.

Manager Lee explained, "There were many hit-by-pitches with the two-seam fastball. As a result, he felt burdened and stopped throwing it, but we decided to change that by having him throw it again. Since he was only throwing outside, he got hit by many balls on the outside. It's not intentional to hit batters, so we plan to use the inside part as well."

It is unreasonable to expect success by hiding the most powerful weapon when all available weapons could not guarantee success.

Manager Lee added, "It seems he had a discussion with the pitching coach about this. In yesterday's game, he threw the two-seam fastball. It didn't seem to be thrown deeply, but most of the pitches that were almost in the middle and slightly curved were two-seam fastballs. They weren't bad. There were many groundouts."

Velocity also naturally increased. Manager Lee stated, "I don't know why the velocity increased. It's the velocity he originally had, but it didn't show up in the early part of the season. There must be various reasons. I didn't ask specifically. In the last game, it reached 154 km/h. Perhaps because he threw the two-seam fastball yesterday, it came out at 147 km/h and 148 km/h."

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*This content was translated by AI.