Casey Kelly (34), who activated the ace mode, led LG to victory.
Kelly is a representative long-lived foreign pitcher in the KBO League, wearing an LG uniform over the past four seasons and winning a total of 61 wins (33 losses). By sprinkling various types of pitches, such as fast balls in the mid-to-late 140 km/h range, sliders, curveballs, changeups, and sinkers, he has been generous with double-digit multipliers every season. In his last season, he even achieved a career-high 16 wins (4 losses) with a 2.54 ERA.
Kelly, however, has had a bad start to the season. Kelly, who started in the opening game against KT, recorded a loss with 6 runs in 5.1 innings and started in 6 games in April, showing 1-2 with an average ERA of 5.66, below expectations. Kelly started to come back to life in May. On the 7th, against Doosan, he scored his second win of the season with 1 run in 7 innings, and on the 13th he delivered a victory against Samsung with 3 runs in 7 innings.
In the first game of the weekend’s three-game series against Hanwha at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 19th, Kelly tied the Hanwha batting line tightly with 6 hits, 4 strikeouts and 1 run in 7 innings. Kelly was hit by an unexpected blow in the first at-bat by former teammate Chae Eun-seong, who transferred from LG to Hanwha as a free agent (FA) ahead of this season. Chae Eun-seong took off his helmet and bowed his head to the LG fans before entering the plate for the first LG game played in Jamsil, his hometown.
Chae Eun-seong, who entered the plate like that, hit Kelly’s 4th curve and fired a solo shot over the left wall. However, Kelly began to overwhelm the Hanwha batters with a ball that was 150 km/h and a curve with a large drop. In the only crisis, in the 4th inning with 2 outs and bases loaded, Hanwha Park Seong-eun struck out with 3 pitches and roared.
The LG hitters lightened Ace Kelly’s shoulders with scoring support. Foreign batter Austin Dean hit a 2-RBI double against Hanwha starter Dong-Ju Moon in the 3rd inning and made a turnaround, and Kim Hyun-soo scored a timely hit with 1 RBI against reliever Jung Woo-ram in the 5th inning. Jung Woo-young and Ham Deok-joo took charge of one inning each in the 8th and 9th innings, and kept the victory by posting holds and saves.
After the game, Kelly said, “I came out after preparing a strategy with Park Dong-won, and I thought I would pitch aggressively from the beginning. He tried to make a quick match with a fastball and catch a strike with a curveball,” he said.안전놀이터
Then, when asked how he felt about dealing with Chae Eun-seong, he said, “I felt strange when I was dealing with Chae Eun-seong. He spent time on the same team for a long time, and it was a strange feeling because he was a player who received a lot of love from the fans.” revealed
Meanwhile, Moon Dong-ju, who was sluggish with 2.1 innings and 7 runs in the last SSG game, was unable to complete 5 innings with 3 runs in 4 innings against LG that day, and came down the mound, recording his 4th loss (2 wins) of the season.