“I want to win as many games as I can.”

These were the words of right-hander Park Se-woong, who pitched a no-hitter to lead the Lotte Giants to victory.

Lotte won 11-1 at home against the NC Dinos of the 2023 KBO Baseball League at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on Friday, thanks to a strong performance by starting pitcher Park Se-woong and a focused batting lineup.스포츠토토

It was a stellar performance from starter Park Se-woong, who threw seven innings of two-hit ball on 105 pitches, walking one and striking out eight to improve to 2-1 on the season. He also recorded his first Quality Start Plus of the season (three earned runs or less in seven innings as a starter).

After the game, Park said, “The team needed a win, and it was an important game for me as well, so it’s nice to get a good result. I don’t have any words to describe it other than good,” he said, adding, “First and foremost, I want to thank the batters for scoring a lot of runs so that I could pitch comfortably in the early innings of today’s game.”

Park’s performance was aided by a good lead from catcher Shin Jung-geun. He also hit the game-winning two-run double to left field with one out in the bottom of the third inning when Lotte led 4-0.

“Before today’s game with (Jung), I told him that I like curveballs and forkballs and that it would be good to play with a location and pitch mix based on those pitches. I played with that in mind, and I think that was good,” Park said. “He was sitting behind home plate and was very comfortable leading me off, and (that) made it easy for me to throw strikes,” he added.

He added, “Playing with (Bo-geun) Chung, there were a lot of times when the pitches I was thinking of and the autographs matched well. I think I had a very good tempo. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Bo-geun Chung.” He bowed his head again.

Park, who participated in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, had a slow start to the season due to the aftermath.

But in May, he rebounded perfectly. On 12 May, he pitched five innings of five-hit ball with two walks and five strikeouts against the KT Wiz in Suwon (1-2 Lotte), and on 19 May, he pitched six innings of six-hit ball with three walks and six strikeouts against the SSG Landers in Busan (7-5 Lotte).

Before the game, manager Larry Sutton said, “Park Se-woong is a good pitcher. He’s a pitcher who can throw good pitches, good pitches, and better pitches than he thinks he can.” “I think a pitcher is an offensive person. “I think a pitcher is an attacker,” he said, “and I think he lost his attacking instincts early in the season, but he’s found them recently, and he’s been aggressive in the strike zone and making pitches that play to his strengths.

Park, who pitched well in response, explained the factors behind his recent rebound, saying, “I think it’s because I’m getting better at locating pitches in the strike zone rather than locating pitches that are too much of a ball after two strikes, and that’s why I had good results today.”

“I was worried about the fact that I only pitched about five innings (earlier this season), but I pitched seven innings in this game (following a six-inning outing against SSG on the 19th), so I’m not completely satisfied in that regard, but I’m feeling that I’m getting better and better,” he said.

Park’s resurgence has taken a lot of hard work. “I think I’ve been consistent with what I’ve always done. I stuck to my routine and watched some videos I liked in between, and I didn’t pursue anything else, but I think it helped me.”

Park also said, “I think (my physical condition and pitching balance) was the best at the beginning of last year,” and “(now) I think it’s up to 70 to 80 per cent, if not more, than it was at the beginning of last year.”

With the win, third-place Lotte, which took a three-game midweek series as a sweep, improved to 24-15 and remained two games behind the leaders LG Twins (28-1). They are just one game behind the second-place SSG Landers (27 wins, 1 draw, 16 losses).

“When any team wins a game, the mood is good, and when they lose even one game, the mood is bad. The reason why the mood is good is because we are winning all the games well,” Park explained. Finally, he added, “When we are good, we need to widen our win and loss margins. That way, even if we’re playing badly, we can shorten (the streak). I think there is a feeling that we want to win a lot while we can.”