A reserve sergeant made his return to the first team.
LG Twins’ Lee Sang-young (23) started the eighth game of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League against the Samsung Lions at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Thursday. It was Lee’s first start of the season after returning from a year and a half of military service on Dec. 12. It has been 598 days since Lee took the mound for the first team since October 24, 2021, against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil (DH Game 1).
In both of his seasons with the Commerce, Lee has shown promise in the Futures League. In 2022, he went 10-3 with a 3.31 ERA in 22 games, and in 2023, he went 8-1 with a 2.63 ERA in nine games.
Naturally, LG coach Yeom Kyung-yeop had high expectations. Before the game, Yeom said, “There is no pitch count limit. I’m just going to watch him for a month,” and said, “The key is Kelly and Shim.”
In the first inning, he gave up a single to Kim Ji-chan. He got Kim Hyun-jun to fly out to third and Jose Pirela to fly out to center, then struck out Kim Ji-chan to end the first inning. In the second inning, he gave up a leadoff double to Kang Min-ho, but retired the next three batters.
But in the third inning, the crisis came. The leadoff hitter, Ryu Seung-min, was hit by a pitch. Kim Young-woong laid down a sacrifice bunt to load the bases and Kim Ji-chan walked to put runners on first and second. Kim Hyun-jun grounded out to first base, but the runners moved to second and third. They couldn’t get past Pirela. Pirela hit a two-run double to center field. He then gave up another hard-hit ball to Kang Min-ho. Fortunately, he got Kim Dong-yeop to fly out to center field. No more runs were scored.
In the fourth inning, Lee Sang-young flied out to right field, the first leadoff hitter of the game. He then gave up an infield hit to Kim Ho-jae, but struck out Ryu Seung-min and got Kim Young-woong to ground out to the first baseman.
Lee was replaced by Yoo Young-chan before the start of the fifth inning. Lee pitched four innings, allowing two runs on four hits and three walks with one strikeout. He threw 65 pitches. His fastball and slider were his most common pitches, with 27 each. His fastball was 141 kilometers.
Choi Chae-heung of Samsung, Lee Sang-young’s roommate, who had his comeback game the day before Lee Sang-young, said, “I was worried about his performance. She called me the day before and said, ‘If you throw like that, what will happen to you, you’ll be overwhelmed.'” There was a leadoff hitter in every inning except the fourth, but it didn’t shake things up much. 먹튀검증
It was a start that made us look forward to what the future holds for Lee Sang-young.