INCHEON– By the way he was dominating the opposing lineup in the South Korean baseball championship series on Monday, it was impossible to tell Kiwoom Heroes ace An Woo-jin was less than a week removed from an outing cut short by a blister in his finger.
Ultimately, An’s awe-inspiring performance against the SSG Landers, whom he shut down for six innings, was not enough, as the Heroes blew a 4-0 lead and lost 5-4 on a walkoff, three-run homer by pinch hitter Kim Kang-min in the bottom of the ninth.
An, who struck out six and gave up just two hits, was pitching six days after leaving his Game 1 start with two outs in the third inning, after a blister in his right middle finger popped and bled. He would have been in line to start Saturday’s Game 4 but his outing was pushed back to give his finger more time to heal.
Even then, it wasn’t clear just how deep An could go into the game.
In the early innings, at least, An looked none the worse for wear.
He was perfect through three innings with four strikeouts. He struck out the first batter of the fourth, but his perfect run ended with a two-out walk to Choi Jeong. An then battled Han Yoo-seom to a 3-2 count before getting him to fan on a high fastball.
All of An’s six strikeouts were of the swinging variety. His signature fastball topped out at 157 kilometers per hour (97.6 miles per hour), a few ticks above his season average, and sat around 154 kph.
An got into his first serious jam in the fifth, as a one-out walk and a single — the first Landers hit off him — put runners at the corners for Kim Sung-hyun.
An fell behind 3-1 on the No. 8 hitter but induced a rally-killing, 6-4-3 double play ball.
More trouble brewed in the sixth inning for An, who gave up a double and hit a batter with one out. An got the second out on a fielder’s choice grounder, but issued his third walk of the game to load the bases for Juan Lagares.
An was still hitting 156 kph on the radar gun, but his command was clearly off. But he showed Lagares two fastballs before throwing him two straight curveballs, the latter of which induced a pop fly to shortstop.
It was An’s 100th and final pitch on this rainy Monday evening.
Though An didn’t end up getting the win for his effort, he thoroughly outpitched his counterpart, veteran left-hander Kim Kwang-hyun.
Kim is a far more accomplished pitcher, with four Korean Series rings and a regular season MVP trophy in his resume. Kim also spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons in the majors with the St. Louis Cardinals.
However, Kim had trouble finding the zone early in Monday’s game. He gave up two runs in the first inning on a single by Kim Tae-jin, which came after a walk and a double.
In the second inning, Kim Kwang-hyun served up a double, a walk and a single in succession to load the bases. He was lucky to escape that inning with just one run on the board on a sacrifice fly.
Kim pitched around a pair of singles in the third, and had his first clean inning in the fourth, which featured two strikeouts. Kim then survived a two-on, one-out jam in the fifth, but that ended up being his final inning.
Kim gave up three runs on seven hits and three walks in a handful of frames, but his teammates bailed him out with two runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth.
This game seemed to represent the passing of the torch from one homegrown ace to another, though An essentially snatched that torch from Kim’s grasp and ran with it.
Source: Yonhap News Agency