“Kim Hwijip was the only player in the bottom of the order with a decent batting average, so I moved him up to No. 2.”
The Kiwoom Heroes, coached by Hong Won-ki, will open their 2023 KBO season against the Lotte Giants at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul, on July 27.
The mood is not good for Kiwoom, which has lost three straight games. In particular, they were held scoreless for two consecutive days, from the 25th against the KT Wiz in Suwon (0-3) to the previous day’s game against Lotte in Gocheok (0-2).
“Not scoring for two games in a row…” said Kiwoom coach Hong Won-ki before the game, “We didn’t have any luck with the bat, but everything is falling apart, whether it’s runs or scoring chances. I’m trying to (instruct the players) to get on base no matter what. I’m hoping that one day, when the two-hit balance is right, we’ll have a good chance,” he said.
Kim Jun-wan (left fielder), Kim Hwi-jip (designated hitter), Lee Jung-hoo (center fielder), Kim Hye-sung (second baseman), Edison Russell (shortstop), Kim Tae-jin (third baseman), Lee Won-seok (first baseman), Lee Ji-young (catcher), and Lee Hyung-jong (right fielder) were the starting lineup for Kiwoom. It is noticeable that Kim Hui-jip was moved forward to bat second.
“We wanted to make a breakthrough by shuffling the batting order,” said Hong, explaining Kim’s move to the second spot, “but Kim was the player with the best batting average in the bottom of the order, so we moved him up to the second spot.”
Kiwoom’s foreign pitcher Ariel Furado has been crying over his bad luck this year. He has a 2.97 ERA, but only three wins and six losses.먹튀검증
Coach Hong Won-ki said, “Hurado has a lot of losses, but he continues to rotate as the third starter. It’s unfortunate that he didn’t get the win, but he’s doing his job well.”
Finally, Hong said, “We’ve been getting some good pitches lately. The players have to play as if it’s part of the game, but I think there’s a lot of residue.” “If you look at the previous game and the scoring routes, there were a lot of runs scored in the scoring innings. I think we need to score first. When we have scoring chances, the players still seem to have a good flow. I think it’s important to score unconditionally in scoring chances. I’m sure there will be another good flow,” he said as he took to the field.