Ah! "Despite the grief of losing a family member," he took the mound for LG in the rain, but "couldn't last even one inning..." Yet who could throw stones at him? [On-site from the 2nd Game of the Semi-Playoffs]

*This content was translated by AI.View Original

LG Twins' Lim Chan-gyu (34) took the starting mound for his team despite the sudden pain of losing his father-in-law. Although he could not withstand the KIA Tigers' lineup, who could throw stones at him?

Lim Chan-gyu started in the second game of the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO Postseason Semi-Playoffs (best-of-five series) held at Gwangju-KIA Champions Field on the 18th. He was removed early after pitching one-third of an inning, allowing six hits, one walk, striking out one batter, and giving up five runs.

His total pitch count was 28. Lim allowed consecutive hits and ultimately could not hold the line, recording only one out before leaving the mound.

In the bottom of the first inning, KIA's offense began. Lim Chan-gyu struck out leadoff batter Park Jung-woo on a fourth-pitch swinging strike, seemingly signaling a good start.

However, after giving up a sixth-pitch single to left field to the next batter, Park Jae-hyun, Lim issued a straight walk to Kim Do-young. He did not engage in a difficult at-bat with Kim Do-young, who had hit home runs in three consecutive games against LG recently.

The crisis continued with runners on first and second base and one out. Castro stepped up to the plate and attacked the second pitch, hitting an RBI single that landed just inside the right field line.

After that, the KIA lineup exploded continuously. Follow-up batters Na Sung-beom hit an RBI double that landed just inside the right field line, Kim Sun-bin hit a two-RBI double to left-center field, and Han Jun-su hit an RBI double that directly struck the center field fence. The score became 0-5. Subsequently, Ha Ju-seok recorded a single to left field, and only then did the LG bench move. Instead of removing Lim Chan-gyu, they brought in relief pitcher Kennedy from the bullpen. Rain continued to fall from the sky.

Kennedy fanned Kim Ho-ryeong with a fly out to right field before issuing a walk to Park Jung-woo. However, he recorded an infield grounder to first base on Park Jae-hyun, ending the inning without allowing any further runs.

This season, Lim Chan-gyu appeared in 31 games, recording a 15-7 record with an ERA of 4.46. Over a total of 169 two-thirds innings, he recorded detailed statistics of 187 hits allowed (13 home runs allowed), 41 walks, 102 strikeouts, 86 runs allowed (84 earned runs), a Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP) of 1.34, and an opponent batting average of 0.282. He achieved quality starts on 13 occasions.

Against KIA this year, he appeared in two games, recording one loss with no wins and an ERA of 6.23. Over eight two-thirds innings, he posted a record of 11 hits allowed (2 home runs allowed), one hit batter, four strikeouts, six runs allowed (six earned runs), and an opponent batting average of 0.306.

In fact, Lim Chan-gyu suddenly suffered the loss of his father-in-law the previous day (the 17th). Even amidst the grief of losing a family member, Lim did not immediately move to the wake but expressed his intention to start the game. Before this game, Lim left the message "Jeongsin il-do hasa bulseong" ( ) in the group messenger chat room where the LG players were gathered.

This is a classical idiom meaning that if one concentrates their spirit and efforts on a single point, any difficult task can certainly be accomplished. In the first game, the team's atmosphere had sunk due to defensive errors and other factors. Veteran Lim Chan-gyu conveyed a message of encouragement to his teammates not to waver but to demonstrate focus. Above all, even in a situation where he himself was experiencing a sorrowful event, "Veteran" Lim Chan-gyu thought more of the team, urging everyone to focus solely on the game rather than worrying about him. That is why no one can throw stones at Lim Chan-gyu.

As a result, the KIA lineup concentrated six hits in just the first inning, setting KBO Semi-Playoff records for the most hits in an inning (6), the longest consecutive batters with hits (5), and the longest consecutive batters on base (7). Additionally, the five runs scored in the bottom of the first inning tie the record for the most runs scored in the bottom of the first inning in both Semi-Playoff history and overall Postseason history.

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*This content was translated by AI.View Original