"Why did you throw it right in the middle with two strikes?" After this single remark from Lee Kang-cheol, everything changed! KT's new foreign pitcher, who suffered a humiliating 3-inning outing, sought revenge on the sixth day with a personal best of 9 strikeouts.

*This content was translated by AI.

He did not lose to the same opponent twice. KT Wiz's new foreign pitcher, Davis Daniel (29), properly avenged the humiliation of being pulled after just three innings in the previous game against the KIA Tigers.

On the 12th, Daniel started at the Suwon KT Wiz Park for the home game against KIA in the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season, pitching six innings with four hits allowed, two walks, nine strikeouts, and one earned run. KT defeated KIA 6-2 to extend their winning streak to five games, and Daniel secured his second win (two losses) of the season.

Most importantly, this was a meaningful revenge game. Daniel had been pulled early on the sixth day in a game against Gwangju KIA, allowing three earned runs in three innings. It was the first time since joining KT that he failed to complete five innings. Coincidentally, he faced the same KIA team again just six days later. The start was not easy this time either. He allowed consecutive hits to Park Jung-woo and Park Jae-hyun in the top of the first inning and eventually surrendered the lead on a ground ball by Harold Castro.

It was regrettable that he allowed a hit by engaging in a battle right in the middle despite having a favorable count. However, that was all. In fact, the first-inning pitching became the turning point. Behind it stood the advice of the manager who has nurtured many excellent pitchers.

After the game, Daniel said, "It was a bit tough to start after allowing consecutive hits in the first inning, but I am happy that I was able to make adjustments quickly and pitch well until the sixth inning." He continued, "The manager pointed out that I engaged in a battle right in the middle with two strikes in the first inning. He told me not to engage in a direct battle when there are runners on base, but to take it difficult instead. So I adjusted my pitching design, and from the next batter onward, I had good results."

In fact, his pitching changed completely after that. Daniel threw a total of 102 pitches, centered around 39 four-seam fastballs clocked at up to 148 km/h, mixed with 19 changeups, 19 cutters, 17 sweepers, seven two-seam fastballs, and one curveball.

Especially on this day, the combination of cutter and sweeper proved powerful. Daniel remarked, "Today, since the cutter was effective, the sweeper was also effective. The changeup didn't work as well as I thought, but I still used it in the right situations to get results."

The most impressive statistic was strikeouts. He recorded nine strikeouts on this day, setting a new personal record for most strikeouts in a single game. His previous record was seven, set against Suwon Doosan Bears on the 26th of last month.

Daniel cited aggressive pitching as the reason he was able to record so many strikeouts. He said, "Being aggressive in battles after two strikes helped me get a lot of strikeouts."

However, this aggressive approach on this day did not mean attacking the center of the strike zone unconditionally. After Manager Lee's advice in the first inning, he pitched more cautiously when there were runners on base and attacked batters with his confident pitches after securing a favorable count. This change led to the result of six innings, nine strikeouts, and one earned run.

As a result, against KIA, who had pulled him after just three innings in the previous game, he recorded his third quality start of the season (six or more innings pitched with three or fewer earned runs). Daniel said, "I will prepare well to continue showing my development in the future."

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*This content was translated by AI.