Charlie Barnes, a pitcher who played for the Lotte Giants in professional baseball, threw a scoreless outing in a minor league game.
Barnes, now with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs of the Chicago Cubs organization, started on the 7th (Korean time) at Principal Park in Iowa, U.S., against the Triple-A Columbus Clippers (affiliated with the Cleveland Guardians) in the 2026 minor leagues and worked five innings, allowing four hits, striking out four, issuing one walk and throwing a scoreless outing.
Although luck did not go his way, Barnes did his part as a starting pitcher. His season earned run average fell from 3.74 to 3.04.
In the top of the first with one out and no runners, he appeared shaken after giving up two consecutive hits but ended the inning without allowing a run on an infield groundout.
In the second, he faced a scoring threat after giving up a double to the leadoff hitter Nolan Jones, but he got Cody Huff swinging for a strikeout, Angel Henao on a flyball and Milan Tolentino swinging for a strikeout to escape the jam.
In the third, he retired three batters on a groundout, a strikeout and a flyball. In the fourth, with one out and no runners again, he gave up a double and faced a 2-out, runners on first and third threat, but he kept the shutout bid intact by getting Henao to ground out.
Barnes retired the side in the fifth on a strikeout, a groundout and an outfield flyball, then handed the mound over to the bullpen starting in the sixth. The team won 3-2 after an extra-inning contest.
Barnes was a prized foreign pitcher for Lotte. He signed with Lotte in 2022 and served as the team's ace for more than three years until he left after being diagnosed in early May last year with injury to the left shoulder subscapularis.
He finished his KBO League career with 94 games, 553 innings, a 35-32 record, a 3.58 ERA, 516 strikeouts and 166 walks. He ranks third in most wins among Lotte foreign players and, from 2022, he was an extraordinary innings-eating foreign pitcher who logged 186 1/3 innings, 170 1/3 innings and 150 2/3 innings.
OSEN=Reporter Hong Ji-su