"It was my first chance at a shutout..." (pitcher Wells), "the season is long" (Youm Kyoung-youb)
LG Twins foreign pitcher Lachlan Wells delivered the performance of his life on the KBO League stage. Facing his first career chance at a shutout, he was replaced in the ninth inning and expressed regret.
Wells started the game against the Hanwha Eagles at Jamsil Stadium on the 22nd and became the winning pitcher with a perfect outing: 84 pitches over 8 innings, allowing just 1 hit, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts with no runs. LG won 3-0.
Wells showed dominant pitching, retiring 10 consecutive batters from the 1st through the 4th innings and 13 consecutive batters from the 4th through the 8th. His fastball peaked at 148 km/h; he mixed changeups (23), curveballs (14) and sliders (6) with a fastball-heavy approach (41).
The only real threat came in the top of the 4th with a 2-0 lead, when Peraza hit a single to center-left after one out and Moon Hyun-bin walked; he then got Kang Baek-ho to fly out to left field, and baserunner Moon Hyun-bin was tagged out on a catcher's pickoff attempt. The highlight was retiring Chae Eun-seong, pinch-hitter Lee Jin-young and Kim Tae-yean with 'KKK' in the 8th.
He had thrown 53 pitches through five innings and finished the 7th with seven pitches for a 1-2-3 inning. With 84 pitches over 8 innings, he was certainly in a position to challenge for a shutout. But Youm Kyoung-youb replaced him in the top of the ninth, up 3-0, with closer Yoo Young-chan. Yoo Young-chan finished the game with a 1-2-3 inning for his 11th save of the season.
After the game Wells expressed regret about the shutout. He said, "I really wanted to go out in the ninth. Since I've never had a shutout before, I told the coaching staff I wanted to go out. But I'm satisfied that I left after putting the team in a position to win."
How did he request to pitch in the ninth? Wells said, "I told coach Kim Kwang-sang. If we had scored in the bottom of the eighth, it would have been a situation where I could have gone up, but although I'm disappointed, I'm satisfied that I put the team in a position to win."
Youm Kyoung-youb explained the reason for replacing Wells after 84 pitches, saying, "Wells wanted to keep pitching, but we made the change to avoid overworking him. Even though he threw 84 pitches, I think pitching through eight innings causes almost the same damage as throwing more than 100. Rather than the shutout record, there is still a lot of season left, and the season is long."
On March 26 last year at Jamsil against Hanwha, Im Chan-kyu threw 100 pitches and recorded a 4-0 shutout. When that was mentioned, Youm said with a laugh, "Chan-kyu can throw 120." He noted that Wells, who topped out at 148 km/h with his fastball, has a different pitching mechanism from Im Chan-kyu.
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