Kiwoom Heroes’ Ariel Hurado couldn’t help but laugh at the good fight.
Hurado started on the 3rd in an away game against the LG Twins in the 2023 professional baseball KBO League held at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul.
After joining hands with Kiwoom 메이저사이트 ahead of this season, Rado suffered from extreme bad luck. He had a good ERA of 2.83 before this game, but his win/loss record was only 6-8. It was because of his poor scoring support, as well as frequent arson of the bullpen. In his most recent appearance, against Gocheok Samsung Lions on the 28th of last month (5-5 draw), he showed a good pitching, blocking 7.1 innings with 1 run, but unfortunately, he could not win.
And on this day, Hurado also showed good pitching, but suffered from bad luck and delayed the achievement of 7 wins in the season to the next opportunity. He was a good pitcher who was able to save the team from a four-game losing streak, but the bullpen was struggling.
Bad luck befell Hurado from the start. In the bottom of the first inning, lead hitter Hong Chang-ki walked, and Moon Seong-joo pitched a grounder, making the situation 1 out and 2 base. Afterwards, Hurado put Kim Hyeon-soo to sleep with a shortstop fly, but the follow-up hitter, Austin Dean, hit a ground ball and shortstop Kim Hye-seong made an error and took the first run. He handled Oh Ji-hwan with a fly in center field and did not concede any additional runs.
There was nothing rough from the bottom of the second inning. He completed the first tripartite inning by slowly increasing the outcount against Moon Bo-kyung (first baseman grounder), Park Dong-won (second baseman grounder), and Park Hae-min (second baseman grounder). In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Shin Min-jae (shortstop grounder), Hong Chang-ki (pitcher grounder), and Moon Seong-joo (shortstop grounder) finished the inning.
The fighting continued in the bottom of the 4th inning. After tying Kim Hyeon-soo with a ground ball to the second baseman, he struck out Austin and Oh Ji-hwan, respectively, and induced a center fielder fly.
The bottom of the 5th was a bit crowded. Leading batsman Moon Bo-gyeong’s heavy hit and Park Dong-won’s surprise bunt succeeded, and it seemed that the 1st and 3rd bases were safe. Third baseman Song Seong-moon caught Park Dong-won’s bunt and hurriedly threw it to first base, but first baseman Lee Won-seok collided with batter runner Park Dong-won and failed to catch it. In the meantime, Moon Bo-kyung ran to third base. The first judgment was a defensive error by the third baseman.
In response, the Kiwoom bench immediately requested a video review for the 3-foot defensive interference, and as a result, batter runner Park Dong-won was out for 3-foot defensive interference, and Moon Bo-gyeong, who had settled in third base, was ordered to return to first base.
The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) made major changes to this rule on the 20th of last month when there was a lot of controversy about the 3-foot decision this year. If the umpire determines that the runner’s running on base caused the ‘interference’, defensive interference is declared, and if the umpire determines that the batter-runner’s running on base inside the 3-foot line clearly caused the defensive (thrown or catch) ’cause of the interference’. Even in this case, it was decided to declare it as a defensive obstruction.
Park Dong-won stepped on the first base with his right foot, but on the relay screen, the last left foot seemed to be inside the line. The referee judged this to be defensive interference. LG coach Yeom Kyung-yeop immediately protested, but the decision was not overturned, and he was ordered to leave because he protested against the video review.
However, this situation seemed to have affected Hurado to some extent. In the ensuing 1 out 1 base, Park Hae-min hit to the left, and he struck out Shin Min-jae, but Hong Chang-ki allowed 1 RBI and a left-handed hit, and took the second run. He then dedicated a well-hit hit to Moon Seong-ju, but the ball was sucked into the glove of shortstop Kim Joo-hyung.
Hurado regained his composure in the bottom of the sixth inning. He caught Hyun-soo Kim with a catcher’s ground ball, and made a ground ball to third baseman for Austin. Afterwards, Oh Ji-hwan blocked the pitcher’s ground ball to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 7th inning, even after getting on the mound, Rado led Moon Bo-kyung and Park Dong-won to a knockout and a ground ball to the third baseman, respectively. He gave up a bunt hit to second baseman Park Hae-min, the follow-up hitter, but finished his mission that day by striking out pinch hitter Lee Jae-won.
The final score was 7 innings, 4 hits, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 2 runs and 1 earned run. Out of a total of 101 pitches, two-seam/sinker (34 pitches), which measured up to a maximum speed of 149 km, were used the most, and fastball (20 pitches), curve (15 pitches), changeup (15 pitches), and cutter (14 pitches) were used. was The slider (three pitches) was not well used.
With Kiwoom leading 4-2, the ball was given to follow-up pitcher Kim Seong-jin, and Hurado’s 7-win harvest seemed promising. But the goddess of victory turned away from him this time as well. In the bottom of the ninth, closer pitcher Lim Chang-min dedicated a two-run arch to Park Dong-won. On top of that, in the bottom of the 12th inning, Yang Hyun even got a finishing hit from Jung Joo Hyun, and Hurado had to watch the team lose 4-5. It was a harsh day for Hurado in many ways.
