LG changed the starting rotation within a month after the opening. This is the first time for reasons other than injuries. Coach Yeom Gyeong-yeop chose right-handed pitcher Lee Ji-gang as the replacement starting card. He is a 23-year-old prospect who ranked first in the overall ERA of the Futures League last year. Even so, he always throws with a sense of responsibility that he has to do it like a player who has been in the starting rotation.

Lee Ji-gang was not a player who entered LG’s opening entry. In the process of LG playing the opening two consecutive games with kt, he got a first-team opportunity while consuming a lot of the bullpen. After climbing the mound against Lotte on the 12th of last month (1 inning scoreless) and against Doosan on the 14th (1⅓ innings, 3 runs without a run), he was excluded from the first team on the 17th to make room for Go Woo-seok.

In the Futures League, he appeared as a starter twice. On the 21st, against Doosan, he recorded 4 innings, 2 hits, 2 walks, 6 strikeouts, and no runs, and against Doosan on the 28th, 2 innings, 1 hit (home run), 1 walk, 2 strikeouts, 1 run, and prepared to return to the first team. Coach Yeom Gyeong-yeop temporarily excluded Fifth starter Kang Hyo-jong from the first team and selected Lee Ji-gang as an alternative starter. The plan is to send him out against Changwon NC on the 2nd and give additional rest to other starters such as Kim Yun-shik.

LG is the team with the most innings pitched by the bullpen pitcher among the 10 clubs. During the 26 games played, the bullpen pitchers were responsible for a whopping 112 innings. Excluding foreign pitchers Adam Plutko and Casey Kelly, there is no starting pitcher with an average of 5 innings, which is putting pressure on the bullpen. Hyo-Jong Kang pitched only 16⅔ innings in 5 games and ended up being excluded from the first team.

Last week, he used 4.3 reliever pitchers per day over six games. Lee Jeong-yong and Ko Woo-seok appeared in 4 games, and Ko Woo-seok was removed from the first team on the 1st due to back pain. In the last two weeks, Lee Jung-yong has appeared in eight games. Kim Jin-seong and Ham Deok-ju also appeared in seven games each. Because of this situation, I cannot relax and watch him as a replacement starting pitcher. A great sense of responsibility came to Lee Ji-gang.

Last year, LG also spent April without a starting lineup at the beginning of the season. At the point of 26 games after the opening of last year, LG’s bullpen pitching innings was 109⅓ innings, which was the most. Still, the bullpen ERA was 1.73, maintaining first place. Last year, the only difference from this year was that certain players were not crowded. At the end of April this year, there are already signs of a crisis.

Lee Ji-gang made his first team start last year with a different mindset.메이저사이트

“I came up to the first team with a good ERA on the Futures team. But if I couldn’t throw, it seemed that the efforts of the players on the Futures team would be in vain. The seniors, friends, and juniors on the Futures team are working hard. Because of me, I didn’t want people to hear that the Futures record is good but meaningless, so I really focused and threw it hard.”

The result was a good pitch with 5 hits, 3 walks, 1 strikeout and 1 run in 5 innings. On the 2nd, the Changwon NC evangelism situation is no different.