What kind of game will Park Se-woong (27, Lotte), who has been reborn as the national ace, play in the arms of the giants of his team?
Park Se-woong will play the first game of the 2023 KBO League regular season as a starter against Incheon SSG Landers on the 4th. Lotte finished the opening two games against the Doosan Bears with 1 win and 1 loss, and left the best pitcher in the country to start the first three games of the midweek series. 토토사이트
Above all, attention is drawn to Park Se-woong’s first appearance of the season, who performed the most brilliantly alone at the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC), which was left with regret.
In the previous WBC, while most of the pitchers were in unusual condition or hit, Park Se-woong perfectly blocked 6 innings in 2 games with 1 hit, 8 strikeouts and no runs.
He was not scheduled to pitch, but when the pitching staff collapsed in the match against Japan on the 10th of last month, he made a relief mound in a situation where he was trailing 3-14, recording 1.1 perfect innings, and prevented the shame of Korea’s cold game defeat.
In the game against the Czech Republic on the 12th, Park Se-woong took a day off and pitched in 4.2 innings with 1 hit and 8 strikeouts, presenting Korea with their first victory. A pitch that could be considered the best pitch of the tournament. At the same time, from Korea’s point of view, it was also a brilliant counterattack that broke the hearts of fans who had been struggling with pitchers throughout the tournament.
At that time, Park Se-woong made a commitment to prepare for a better season based on the confidence and pride he gained from the WBC.
“I don’t know if I will be able to play such a big tournament called the WBC again in my baseball life, and I feel a lot of pride in throwing in such a big tournament game and going out as a starting pitcher. With such pride, I want to prepare well for the season based on the fact that I went back to Korea after the tournament and competed at the WBC.”
In addition, Park Se-woong said, “It seems that I have thought more about ‘how to catch hitters more quickly’ through the tournament, and I have a lot of desire to pitch like the Czech match again even after returning to Korea.” He also expressed his desire to reenact it again.
Park Se-woong’s opponent was SSG, who recorded 1 loss and an average ERA of 4.42 in 3 games last year. Park Se-woong recorded 6-9 with an average ERA of 4.21 in 27 matches (25 starts) against SSG, and 2-5 with an ERA of 5.34 in literature. In the SSG lineup, Choi Jeong, who hit 5 home runs against Park Se-woong, and Choo Shin-soo, who hit 3 homers, are on guard.
After the end of the 2022 season, Lotte gave Park Se-woong an extension contract of up to 9 billion won for 5 years, separate from the military service period. To that extent, it showed the expectation that Park Se-woong will be able to grow into Lotte’s sure native ace this season and in the future. And Park Se-woong made it possible to get a glimpse of that anticipation through the WBC. What remains now is proof of being an ace with a giant’s heart.