This must be why championship teams are different. NC Dinos manager Lee Ho-jun was surprised by the LG Twins players' hustle plays.
NC lost two consecutive games in the season's first matchup with LG at Changwon NC Park on the 7th and 8th. On the 7th they lost 0-2 after being outmatched in a bullpen battle, and on the 8th they suffered a one-run, 4-5 loss after losing focus late in the game.
The April 9 LG-NC game was called off because of rain in the morning. On the 9th Lee Ho-jun said, "Watching the LG games over two days, I felt there was one thing our players need to see and learn. Not a single LG player failed to run at full speed to first base.
I was surprised to see Haemin run at full speed to first base even after hitting a grounder yesterday. And Jihwan hit a grounder to second and ran at full speed and was safe. Yesterday (the 8th), when Jihwan hit a ground-rule double and as soon as he hit it he ran like that, if he didn't run to first he would never make it home.
I think our players need to learn that. If you run at full speed to first base, the fielder gets hurried and makes mistakes. I've been talking about it since last year, but this year it seems to be particularly lacking," he said.
The manager also emphasized, "You can't help if they can't hit, but anyone can do this (run at full speed to first after hitting). You should run at full speed to first base, and it really stood out yesterday. There was a difference between LG players running after hitting and our players running after hitting."
NC currently has Park Gun-woo, who has a bad knee, and Park Min-woo, who has a bad thigh, so it is difficult for them to sprint on infield grounders. But even other players no longer show that effort. The manager said, "I really hate that. It's not really my style of baseball. The situation has become unavoidable, to the point where I thought maybe I should stop having them do it," expressing concern about the physical condition of some players.
He continued, "Last year I even said things like 'If you do this I won't use you,' but after the season, even though they were in pain, they dragged their legs and still did it, and I thought about that. It's ambiguous what's right. But yesterday I didn't look at anything else; the sight of LG players running to first after hitting really stood out."
He said LG players are different from before. The manager said, "It was a grounder to the first baseman, and in the past Haemin used to run and sometimes didn't even touch the base, but this time he went all the way to first. The same with Jihwan. Even on an outfield fly he ran past second and I thought they were running hard. On a grounder to second he was safe at first, and that's the kind of thing that's needed; those small things later become big. So it's a bit disappointing."
LG felt a sense of crisis after opening the season with three straight losses, then rebounded with a 6-1 stretch. Veterans including captain Park Hae-min, Oh Ji-hwan, Park Dong-won and pitcher Im Chan-kyu are leading the team's atmosphere.
After the three-game opening skid, Park Hae-min reassured the players, saying, "Even if we lose the first three, we can still win the championship. You never know what will happen later. Last year we started with seven straight wins and won the title by a half-game, so even starting with three straight losses this year we can still catch up," comforting the players.
Oh Ji-hwan said after the April 8 game, "Because Hae-min led us well, when we came to Changwon he said, 'We're 4-4 now, from now on only climbs remain for us,' and I think that helped us bond more."
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