It seemed that they were finally coming back to life. However, at that point, he made a superpower to change pitchers. Even as a foreign player, he relentlessly made a quick hook decision.
Lotte Strayley started on the 26th at Sajik Stadium in Busan against the Hanwha Eagles in the regular season of the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ and came down the mound with 3 innings, 1 hit, 2 hits, 4 strikeouts and 1 run. The team won 8-1. Strayley was just the first pitcher.
He wasn’t particularly ill. However, Lotte Bench developed a tandem strategy by utilizing the condition of Strayley, who has not been in a good pace recently, and surplus starting resource Han Hyun-hee, whose appearance was delayed due to the cancellation of rain.
Coach Larry Sutton hinted at Han Hyun-hee’s input in a meeting with reporters before the game. Manager Sutton said, “Hyeon-hee Han’s pitching schedule is flexible. He can come out of the bullpen if needed today.” He went on to explain the pitching staff management plan, saying, “We will have to watch today’s score difference and game situation, but Han Hyun-hee can start the game on Sunday (30th).”
On this day, Strayley seemed to be better than his previous four appearances. In the first inning, after striking out Noh Soo-gwang and center fielder Jung Eun-won, he was beaten by Noh Si-hwan with a left-handed solo shot. Afterwards, Chae Eun-seong struck out and finished the first inning. In the second inning, Choi Jae-hoon was allowed a four-ball ball after one out, but he struck out Yugyeol and caught Moon Hyun-bin with a third baseman grounder.
and 3 times. Strayley allowed lead batter Oh Seon-jin to hit a four ball. The second dune of the day. From this point on, the Lotte bullpen started to move. As predicted, Han Hyun-hee began to warm up. However, in the 3rd inning, Strayley struck out Noh Soo-gwang after the lead hitter’s four ball, turned Jeong Eun-won into a left fielder’s fly ball, and Roh Si-hwan’s right fielder’s fly ball. Stablely blocked up to 3 times. The maximum velocity of the fastball was recorded to 147 km.
However, at the end of the 3rd inning, Lotte scored an extra point with Jeon Jun-woo’s timely hit, and Strayley came down without delay at the beginning of the 4th inning. Even though he is a foreign starting pitcher with poor pace, he is recording 1 run in 3 innings, and the decision to take a quick hook was an unusual situation. Lotte declared an all-out war.
Han Hyun-hee’s input was successful. He maintained a gap of 1 run and blocked the innings stably without making any significant inflection points in the game. In the 4th inning, he struck out lead batter Chae Eun-seong and caught Lee Seong-gon with a floating ball in left field. He gave up a 4 ball to Choi Jae-hoon, but treated the euro as a floating ball to the second baseman. In the 5th inning, Moon Hyun-bin was grounded by shortstop, and Oh Seon-jin and Noh Soo-gwang were struck out in a row and came down the mound.
I passed the 5th inning safely,ㅋㅋㅋ벳 but the 6th inning was a crisis. In the 6th inning, Jeong Eun-won, the lead hitter, was allowed a heavy hit and Noh Si-hwan, a left-handed hit, causing a crisis with 1st and 2nd base safely. In addition, Chae Eun-seong was caught with a floating ball in center field, but the runners on 1st and 2nd base all advanced one more base, amplifying the crisis with 1 company 2nd and 3rd base. Han Hyun-hee’s role ended here. He played a minimal role, and he faithfully played the role of a link between the mid and late stages of the game. The rest of the work was left to professional relief pitchers.
In the end, Lotte prevented the crisis in the 6th episode. The lead was maintained as Kim Jin-wook came to the mound, striking out pinch hitter Kim Tae-yeon and catching Choi Jae-hoon with a fly ball in left field. Lotte’s tandem strategy eventually led to victory.
After overcoming the crisis at the beginning of the 6th inning, Lotte scored 1 more point at the end of the 6th inning and succeeded in scoring 5 points at the end of the 7th inning, consolidating the victory.