“The atmosphere came alive because of Jung-woo.”

KIA Tigers manager Lee Beom-ho expressed his gratitude to outfielder Park Jung-woo (26) who pitched well on the mound as a pitcher. In the 2024 professional baseball game against Doosan Bears held at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on July 31, he went up to the mound in the top of the 9th inning with a score of 6-30 and shut out 1 inning with 2 strikeouts and no runs.

Starting pitcher Kim Do-hyun and 8 pitchers gave up 28 hits, 13 walks, and 1 walk, giving up 30 runs. It was necessary to prepare for the next day’s game before using Lim Ki-young and Jeon Sang-hyun. It was a situation where one fielder had to be put on the mound, and Park Jung-woo, who had a good shoulder, was chosen. Manager Lee experienced Park Jung-woo’s pitching ability when he was the Futures manager.

Park Jung-woo, who came up on the mound, lightly threw the ball and induced the first batter, Kim Jae-hwan, to ground out to second base. Kang Seung-ho then struck out the first batter with a fastball (135 km/h) outside the plate. Both batters hit home runs in their previous at-bats. Pitcher Kwon Hwi came up as the last batter, but his control was shaky. He could have walked.

At that time, a signal came from the Doosan dugout to swing.

Kwon Hwi swung three times on three balls thrown by Park Jung-woo and struck out. He was Doosan’s 70th batter. 파워볼실시간 He received applause for finishing the first inning cleanly even in the midst of a crushing 30-run loss. He had no experience as a pitcher in high school. Instead, he was evaluated as having strong shoulders, which he proved with a speed in the mid-130 km/h range.

Before the game against Doosan on the 1st, Manager Lee Beom-ho said, “I only threw 70%. I didn’t throw hard because I was worried about injuries. When I went up to the mound once during the Futures era, I had good control. I even tried to let the pitcher do it when the bat didn’t hit. I think I blocked it the cleanest. The team atmosphere was down, but at the end, the atmosphere was revived because of Jung-woo,” expressing his gratitude. He continued, “Yesterday, we needed a fielder who could pitch in the 9th inning. I put him aside and used him at the end. Sang-hyun and Ki-young called from the dugout to say they would pitch, but if they did, it would have interfered with today’s game. I decided that the game that was missed was missed.” Park Jung-woo was named in the starting lineup as the 9th batter and center fielder that day.