The 'glasses ace' Park Se-woong delivered a perfect performance. He also expressed gratitude to the junior player who helped complete this perfect game.
On the 17th, Lotte Giants' Park Se-woong started against the Kiwoom Heroes in the regular season at Busan Sajik Stadium, pitching 6⅔ innings with 6 hits, 2 walks, 12 strikeouts, and no earned runs before leaving the mound. This perfect performance laid the foundation for the team's 7-1 victory, and Park achieved his fourth personal win.
On that day, his top speed reached 151 km/h. He mixed various pitches including 35 fastballs, 30 curves, 32 sliders, and 11 forks, utilizing a variety of decisive pitches to perfectly control the game.
Park Se-woong's strikeout streak began in the first inning. He handled the first batter, Song Seong-moon, with a ground ball to the pitcher. Then, he struck out Lee Joo-hyung and Cardenas consecutively, finishing the first inning in order. In the second inning, he gave up a single to the lead-off batter Choi Joo-hwan. However, he secured a looking strikeout against Kim Keon-hee with a fastball and followed with a swinging strikeout against Jeon Tae-hyeon with a curve. Finally, he struck out Puig with a slider, completing the second inning.
In the third inning, he got the lead-off batter Kim Tae-jin out with a ground ball to second base. However, he faced a crisis after allowing a single to Oh Joon-seo and a bunt single to Song Seong-moon, putting him in a 1-out, 1st and 2nd base situation. Nevertheless, he induced Lee Joo-hyung into a ground ball to first base, creating a 2-out, 2nd and 3rd base situation and overcame the scoring threat by inducing Cardenas into a ground ball to shortstop.
In the fourth inning, he retired the lead-off batter Choi Joo-hwan with a ground ball to second base and struck out Kim Keon-hee with a slider on the fourth pitch. However, after getting two strikes against Jeon Tae-hyeon, he allowed a walk. After that, he gave up a single to Puig, putting him in a 2-out, 1st and 3rd base situation. But he managed to escape the threat by getting Kim Tae-jin out with a fly ball to center field.
After that, Park Se-woong rediscovered his rhythm. In the fifth inning, he struck out the lead-off batter Oh Joon-seo with a curve on the fourth pitch and followed with a strikeout against Song Seong-moon using a slider, curve, and forkball consecutively for a 3-pitch strikeout. He then faced Lee Joo-hyung, throwing a fastball, forkball, and curve in sequence to achieve another 3-pitch strikeout, completing a KKK inning with 10 pitches.
In the sixth inning, Park Se-woong struck out the lead-off batter Cardenas with a slider, forkball, and curve in three pitches. He got Choi Joo-hwan out with a ground ball on the first pitch. He allowed a single to Kim Keon-hee but wrapped up the sixth inning by striking out Jeon Tae-hyeon with a forkball for a swinging strikeout.
In the seventh inning, he induced Puig into a ground ball to third base. After one out, he gave up a single to Kim Tae-jin but recovered by striking out Oh Joon-seo. However, with two outs and a runner on first, he issued a walk to Song Seong-moon, resulting in a 2-out, 1st and 2nd base situation. Ultimately, Park Se-woong could not finish the seventh inning as his pitch count had already risen to 108.
However, Song Jae-young, who came in with two outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, struck out Lee Joo-hyung, ending the inning. Park Se-woong's earned runs did not increase, allowing Lotte to approach the latter half of the game more securely.
On that day, Park Se-woong's 12 strikeouts set a personal record for the most strikeouts in a single game. He previously achieved 11 strikeouts against NC on May 10, 2022. It had been 1,073 days since his last double-digit strikeout game, and he set a new record.
After the game, Park Se-woong said, 'When I was pitching in the bullpen today, I wasn't satisfied with the forkball compared to the last NC game. However, Hyung (Yu) Gang-nam caught this and switched to a curve during the forkball timing, which I think was effective today. That's why I had such a good result with 12 strikeouts.'
He continued, 'While it's good to end innings with strikeouts, it seems better to quickly get batters out to save pitches. However, today there were so many strikeouts that there were repeated innings where strikeouts were achieved.'
On that day, Park Se-woong's decisive pitches were varied. He secured strikeouts with all pitches including fastballs, curves, forkballs, and sliders. He noted, 'Gang-nam studies a lot. He seems to have a good sense of which pitches are good or bad when pitching in the bullpen and gives great signs.'
With this victory, Park Se-woong achieved his fourth consecutive win, and the team also added another win to reach a .500 winning percentage. He remarked, 'I had always been hovering around .500, but now that we've achieved .500, I felt that I shouldn't break it because of me.' He expressed a determined readiness to take the mound.
He added, 'As a result, we scored a lot early, which allowed me to pitch more comfortably. I also want to express my gratitude to the fielders.'
However, not being able to finish the seventh inning cleanly was disappointing for Park Se-woong. He stated, 'I should have handled the 7-9 batters decently, but I allowed a hit to the eighth batter (Kim Tae-jin), which threw off the momentum. So I consider it a somewhat disappointing game.'
However, Song Jae-young effectively closed it out, and Park Se-woong showed his appreciation with a hug. He said, 'The player who came in after me (Song) Jae-young handled it cleanly, preventing any runs. I was grateful because, as a pitcher, every run is significant, and I wanted to express my gratitude for stopping it.'
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