Son Joo-young took the lead in the LG Twins’ third place Mercury.
Son Joo-young took the mound as LG’s starting pitcher in Game 2 of the 2024 KBO League regular season against the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 21st.
In fact, LG did not have a good mood before the latest game. In the first doubleheader game held earlier, the team lost 7-14 to allow Doosan, which is ranking fourth, to catch up by half a game. If the team kneels down in the second game, it will be able to sit down from the third place alone to tie for third place.
Furthermore, LG’s starting pitcher Elijah Hernandez, who threw only five balls at the first game, was ejected for throwing a head shot by Huh Kyung-min. As a result, LG had to have a bullpen day, mobilizing all of its players Lee Ji-gang, Lim Joon-hyung, Jung Woo-young, Baek Seung-hyun, Kim Yoo-young, Kim Jin-sung, Lee Jong-joon, Lee Woo-chan and Woo Kang-hoon in the first game. For LG, Son Joo-young needed to digest long innings.
And Son lived up to LG’s expectations. In the top of the first inning, he caught Jeong Su-bin (three strikeouts) and Lee Yoo-chan (three grounder to the third base) in turn. Yang had a hit to right-center, but struck out Kim Jae-hwan. In the top of the second inning, he calmly increased the out count against Yang Seok-hwan (lefty fly), Jarrod Young (second baseman), and Park Joon-young (three strikeouts) to complete his first three-out inning.
In the top of the third inning, Kim showed off his crisis management skills. He offered a hit to the left to Kim Ki-yeon, but led Kim Jae-ho to a double play to the third baseman. He then committed a walk to Jeong, but with the help of catcher Park Dong-won, he managed to catch Jeong who was attempting to steal second base.
His pitching continued in the top of the fourth inning. He cooked Lee Yoo-chan (third baseman fly) and Yang Eui-ji (second baseman ground ball) with bad hitters. He allowed a double to the right, but put Yang to rest with a fly to the center. In the top of the fifth inning, he gave up a hit to Jared, but turned around Park Joon-young (three strikeouts), Kim Ki-yeon (second baseman ground ball), and Kim Jae-ho (three strikeouts).
Son Joo-young, who defeated Jung Soo-bin (middle fielder fly), Lee Yoo-chan (striker ground ball) and Yang Eui-ji (three strikeouts) in the top of the sixth inning, also took the mound in the top of the seventh inning. It could have been shaken because it was Doosan’s central lineup, but it did not collapse. He led Kim Jae-hwan and Yang Seok-hwan to strikeouts in a row, and Jared finished his duties on the day by tying them to not out.
The final record was four hits, one strikeout and nine strikeouts in seven innings. Son recorded the highest number of ties in an individual match, while nine strikeouts in an individual match. He used fastballs (50 pitches) the most among 99 pitches in total, and blocked Doosan’s batters by mixing curves (29 pitches), slider (13 pitches), and fork (7 pitches). The maximum speed of fastballs was measured up to 151 kilometers. 스포츠토토
Son, who handed over the ball to his successor Hernandez with his team leading 2-0, also enjoyed the joy of becoming a winning pitcher as LG did not allow him to tie the game and ultimately resonated with his team’s 2-0 victory. In addition, thanks to Son’s performance, third-ranked LG had 72 wins, two draws and 65 losses, which allowed it to widen its gap with fourth-ranked Doosan (70 wins, two draws and 67 losses) to two more games.
Son Joo-young, who was called by LG as the second overall in the second round of the first round in 2017, is showing rapid growth this year. He only posted 2 wins, 6 losses and a 6.99 ERA in 22 games (65.2 innings) in the first division until last year, but he is playing as the league’s strongest five starters this year. Including the game against Doosan, this year’s performance is 9 wins, 10 losses and a 3.82 ERA in 27 games (143.2 innings).
The head coach has high expectations on Son. “He should be the pillar of our starting lineup next year through this year,” LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop, whom the coach met during the season, said. “This is how we can build a team that we think of. He is a pitcher who can grow up to become a member of the Korean national team along with Lee Eui-ri from the generations of Yang Hyeon-jong (KIA Tigers), Kim Kwang-hyun (SSG Landers) and Ryu Hyun-jin (Hanwha Eagles).
And Son Joo-young not only led the team to victory but also protected the bullpen by pitching hard at a moment when the team needed it. Attention is focusing on what kind of performance Son Joo-young, who has improved through this season, will perform in the future.
