Lotte Giants right-handed pitcher Na Gyun-an (25), who had been stagnant for a while in May after winning the KBO League MVP in April and spending the best month, took the lead in the team’s victory with a zero-run reverse pitch. stood
Na Kyun-an took the mound as a starting pitcher in a home game against the NC Dinos held at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 23rd and produced a flawless result with 5 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts and no runs in 6 innings.
Na Kyun-an’s ERA went down from 2.76 to 2.45.
The highest speed of fastball was up to 147 km per hour, and 39 of the total 86 pitches were selected as forkballs.
He threw 30 fastballs, 12 curveballs and 4 cutters.
Na Kyun-an, who had a good fight with 4 wins and an ERA of 1.34 during the month of April, went through an adjustment period with 1 loss and an ERA of 5.87 in 3 games in May before the match.
However, on this day, he dazzled the eyes of NC batters with his fastball, forkball and curveball with precise control and did not give any points.
Na Gyun-an, who continued the streak of seven batters with one out in the third inning and gave up a hit to NC No. 8 hitter Kim Joo-won, allowed Son Ah-seop to walk after two outs, but struck out Park Young-bin.
The 5th inning was the biggest crisis in the 4th inning, with the Lotte batting line scoring 2 points and leading 2-0.
Na Kyun-an was hit by a double from lead batter Yoon Hyung-jun and left-handed by Seo Ho-cheol, and was driven to first and third base safely.
Yoon Hyung-joon’s batted ball hit the barbed wire at the top left of Sajik Stadium, which could have turned into a home run.
Shortly thereafter, Kim Joo-won committed a wild game at bat and became second and third base safely, putting him in a position to allow a tie with a single hit.
In the crisis of conceding a run, Na Gyun-an induced Kim Joo-won to ground the third baseman with a forkball, and caught third base runner Hyung-jun Yoon, who started home, and changed the situation to 1st and 2nd base without conceding a run.
Then, he threw a forkball to Tae-hoon Do and Ah-seop Son to eliminate consecutive strikeouts and finished the 5th inning without a run.
Na Gyun-an, who usually does not express emotions well on the mound, showed joy by striking out Ah-seop Son and clenching his fists.
On the other hand, Son A-seop, who struck out on a swing, turned to the dugout with a devastated smile.
Na Kyun-an, who was responsible for the 6th inning, went down the mound in the 7th inning, and Lotte won 2-0 as it was and harvested their 5th win (1 loss) of the season.
The most decisive ball in the game that day was the forkball that caught Ah-seop Son by striking out on a swing.
After the game, Na Kyun-an said, “I told Son Ah-seop beforehand that I would throw a forkball before the game.” But the ceremony came out naturally without me knowing.”
“Coach Young-soo Bae said, ‘Throw it as if you were only giving one point,’ but as I focused on throwing one batter at a time, I was able to block it with no runs,” he said with a broad smile.
Another senior who helped Na Kyun-an get through the 5th inning without a run is catcher Yoo Kang-nam.
Yoo Kang-nam chased Yun Hyeong-jun to the end and caught a tag-out when Kim Joo-won grounded to third base from the second and third bases.
In the process, his knee slightly bent and fell, and he was out of the game from the next inning.
Na Gyun-an said, “I kept seeing that Gangnam-hyung was not feeling well. So I looked at him and he gestured to me, ‘Don’t worry about it and do what you want to do.’ Thanks to that, I was able to concentrate in that situation.”
Na Kyun-an, who turned into a pitcher in 2021, challenges the ’10-win pitcher’ for the first time this year.
Having already achieved half of his goal by winning five wins, he said, “I don’t think about personal records. I think about every game to do only what I can do.”
Na Kyun-an cited being analyzed by hitters as the reason for his poor performance this month.
He said, “It seems that the batters prepared more than I prepared. That part was lacking,” he said. “There is one more game left in May, and I will prepare well.”안전놀이터
Thanks to Na Gyun-an’s strong endurance on the mound, Lotte came to the threshold of early summer as a top-tier team, escaping from the ridiculed humiliation of ‘Bomde’.
Na Kyun-an said, “I don’t lose in the atmosphere. Even if I lose, I feel like I’m going to turn over.”