Jeong Min-cheol’s record was advanced by over a year
Hyeon-jong Yang (pictured), the ‘great pitcher’ of KIA, became the youngest player in KBO league history to reach 150 wins.
Yang Hyun-jong started on the 19th against the home team Lotte at Busan Sajik Stadium and led the team to a 4-2 victory with 4 hits (1 homer) and 3 strikeouts and 2 runs in 2/3 innings in 7th. It is his 3 wins (2 losses) in the season and his 150th win in his career. Yang Hyun-jong became the fourth player in the league to record 150 victories after Song Jin-woo (2002, then Hanwha), Lee Kang-cheol (2004, then KIA), and Jeong Min-cheol (2007, then Hanwha). Jung Min-cheol’s record of 150 wins at 35 years, 2 months and 27 days was also advanced to 34 years, 2 months and 18 days.
Right before the end of the match, it was impossible to predict whether or not they would achieve 150 wins. Yang Hyun-jong came down the mound in the bottom of the 8th, leading 3-2. In the early 9th, 8th batter Lee Chang-jin added one home run and widened the score to 4-2, but at the end of the ninth, KIA closing pitcher Jeong Hae-young hit Peters and gave up walks to Bae Seong-geun and Ji-wan Ji-wan in a row, and the two were in danger of running out of bases. . Lotte sent out pinch-hit Ho-yeon Lee in Shin Yong-soo’s at-bat at No. 9, but was out with a ground ball at second base, and KIA confirmed the victory.
Yang Hyeon-jong took the lead in controlling the strength and weakness and broke the timing of Lotte’s batting line. Among the 87 balls, the highest speed of the fast ball (49.4%), which is close to half of the total, was 149 km/h, and the lowest speed of the changeup (40.2%), which was thrown the second most, was 126 km/h, a difference of 23 km/h.
KIA manager Kim Jong-kook praised, “Today, there was a shortage of pitchers, but Yang Hyun-jong took charge of the long innings and became the protagonist of 150 wins with his own strength.” Yang Hyun-jong also said, “He felt the pressure of his teammates, so he wanted to take charge of many innings. Fortunately, the Lotte batters came out aggressively, reducing the number of pitches and producing good results.”
The visiting team won all the other 4 matches. In Jamsil, the lead SSG won 9-3 over Doosan with Font’s pitching of 3 runs in 7 innings, and 2nd place LG also defeated KT 7-3 thanks to Chae Eun-sung, who hit 4 in 4 at-bats and 4 RBIs in Suwon. defeated Samsung defeated Hanwha 2-1 in Daejeon with Oh Seung-hwan’s 350th save. Kiwoom beat NC 3-1 in Changwon.
By Kang Dong-woong, staff reporter leper@donga.com
