101 pitches in 4 innings. But I can’t take him out of the starting lineup, and it’s a pain in the ass.

Eui-ri Lee of the KIA안전놀이터 Tigers again failed to play the starting role properly. Now, the KIA bench and fans watching his ‘roller coaster’ pitching seem to have a limit on their patience.

Lee Eui-ri made his 7th start of the season against the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Stadium on the 12th. The result was 2 runs in 4 innings. The team lost 1-6 and became the losing pitcher.

You can’t win every match. may lose The problem is the pitch content. The number of appearances is increasing, but there is no development at all.

The Doosan match also had an extreme roller coaster pitch. He had a hard time hunting for the first pitch, recorded 3K in one inning, seemed to come back to life like that, but couldn’t predict it at all because of the ‘balling’ that continued.

The problem is that the ball goes back and forth too loudly. There are too many balls that are balls from the time they leave the hand, rather than being judged as a ball while throwing a ball to attract the opponent. At least, his pitch is powerful, so he has passed over the crisis by striking out and inducing double killing in a crisis situation, but there is a limit to enduring this as well.

He struck out three batters in the second inning, and threw 37 pitches in the third inning alone. He threw 10 balls to Heo Gyeong-min and 9 balls to Yang Eui-ui, and the result was that both of them were walks. On this day, there were only 3 walks (?) in 3 innings, but the problem was that the number of pitches for batters who did not walk was too many. It must have been nicknamed ‘perverted with ten thousand bases’.

I pitched 4 innings and the number of pitches was 101. He couldn’t throw more. It is important for a starting pitcher to give up fewer runs, but the best virtue is to take responsibility for the innings as much as possible. However, since there are too many pitches in each game, it is too short to digest innings. He was not responsible for 5 innings in 3 consecutive games before Doosan. Scored 2 losses. No game has gone 6 innings this season. His walks were 29, leading the league. In this situation, it is surprising that the average ERA is below the 3-point range.

When Eui-ri Lee starts, the bullpen consumes more, and the fielders inevitably lose their stamina more quickly. The weather is cool now, and it’s fine at the beginning of the season, but it can cause a big problem in the summer. SBS Sports commentator Lee Soon-chul, who commented on the match, also expressed frustration. Commissioner Lee pointed out, “Even with a powerful ball, I can’t throw it confidently.”

However, it is a headache because Lee Eui-ri cannot be removed from the starting rotation. Although ball control is a problem, finding a left-handed starting agent who can throw a 150km fastball is not an easy task. The Doosan match also recorded a fast ball speed of 152 km. In particular, after joining in 2021, it is a timber that KIA has been raising as a new franchise star since he was a rookie. In addition, the average ERA is good and the number of losses is not that high, so there is not enough grounds to exclude him from the rotation.

Originally, I didn’t have a good style, but this season is serious. As these pitches pile up, not only will individual players lose confidence, but they can also adversely affect the team. How will KIA coach Kim Jong-kook and Lee Eui-ri solve this recurring problem? It feels like it will be an important key to KIA’s farming this season.