NC Lee Jun-ho pitches in the second inning of the fourth round of the baseball ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO Postseason’ playoff game between KT Wiz and NC Dinos at Changwon NC Park in Masanmyeon-gu, Changwon-si, Gyeongnam, on November 3.
The NC Dinos suffered a heartbreaking second straight loss at home. But it wasn’t all for nothing. Rookie Lee Jun-ho (23), who made his presence felt by striking out four in relief in the fourth game of the playoffs, stamped his authority in front of a full house.
NC lost the fourth game of the playoffs to KT Wiz 2-11 on March 3 at Changwon NC Park. Starting pitcher Song Myung-ki’s early departure after just 1⅓ innings disrupted the offense, and the tired bats were shut down by opposing starter William Cuevas.
After Song Myung-ki went down, NC brought up Lee Jae-hak to try and break the momentum of the KT bats and gain a foothold in the game. However, Lee Jae-hak was unable to withstand the KT bats and gave up four runs, turning the tide of the game sharply in KT’s favor.
With the gap widening, NC pulled Lee Jae-hak and brought up Lee Jun-ho with two outs in the top of the fourth inning. The move was made to give the younger players a chance, as the gap had widened significantly.
Lee was drafted in the sixth round (54th overall) of the rookie draft out of Sungkyunkwan University. He appeared in 17 games for the first team this year, posting a 3-2 record with a 4.83 ERA. He made two starts and all of his other appearances were in relief.
He’s a pitcher with great potential. He even threw a complete game shutout in the Futures League. On September 9, he threw his first professional complete game against the Samsung Lions at Gyeongsan Ballpark, 카지노사이트랭크 allowing two runs on four hits with five strikeouts in nine innings. He was then called up to the first team and earned his first win in relief.
And Lee didn’t shy away from his first fall ball, either.
After getting Moon Sang-chul to ground out to end the inning, Lee took the mound in the top of the fifth and induced an eight-pitch battle with the first batter, Oh Yoon-seok, for a swinging strikeout.
Lee’s strikeout show continued. He used a fastball, curveball, and slider to strike out the next batter, Choi Jae-dae, who was at the peak of his hitting form on the day, for a three-pitch strikeout, and then struck out the next batter, Choi Sung-ho, for a swinging strikeout to complete his fourth consecutive strikeout.
It was a fantastic fall baseball debut, even though the team lost big. The packed stadium was thrilled with Lee’s performance.
By taking advantage of the opportunity that came his way, Lee impressed the coaching staff and gave himself a leg up on the mound competition next season, if not this postseason. Lee’s comeback in a losing effort is a ray of hope for the NC bullpen. 고스톱
