LG Twins’ Choi Won-tae, 27, who overcame early-season pitching struggles to record his first quality start of the season (three runs or fewer over six innings), said he found his groove after being hit in the knee by a pitch.
Choi Won-tae threw 91 pitches over six innings, allowing one run, two hits, three walks and five strikeouts in a 6:30 p.m. game against the SSG Landers of the 2024 Shinhan SOL BANK KBO League at SSG Landers Field in Incheon, South Korea, to earn his second win of the season.
Choi struggled with his command in the first inning, throwing eight pitches in a row to leadoff hitters Choi Ji-hoon and Choo Shin-soo to walk the next two batters. He then gave up an RBI single to Guillermo Heredia, giving up a run. However, Choi did not give up any more runs after that.
“I kept trying to do well, so it didn’t work out. (It’s good that I changed my mind and relaxed. My changeup and curveball were going for strikes (unlike the previous game). I started putting four or five pitches in the strike zone and it worked out well.”
On his first inning struggles, he said, “I didn’t feel good on the 18th. It was the same today. But I was able to overcome it with my experience,” he said.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Choi was hit in the 토토사이트 leg by SSG Park Sung-han’s pitch with the bases loaded. However, Choi said, “After being hit by the pitch, I was caught by a pitch. After being hit, my competitive spirit boiled over.”
Choi had 27 strikeouts in 19.2 innings pitched before this game. That’s more than one strikeout per inning. “I don’t want to strike out a lot. I want hitters to hit fast. I’m throwing to catch batters, not to strike them out.” “By chance, I struck out a lot at the beginning of the season. It’s rather hard because the number of pitches increased a lot,” he said, adding that he doesn’t mind it.