‘900 million’ Jang Jae-young (21), who was in charge of Kiwoom Heroes’ 5th starter this year, showed a somewhat disappointing appearance in the first appearance of the season.
Jang Jae-young started in the 2023 Shinhan Bank Sol KBO League LG Twins game at Gocheok Sky Dome on the 6th and recorded 4 hits and 3 runs in 4 innings.
Before the game on this day, Kiwoom coach Hong Won-ki said, “Jae-young Jang did not put a limit on the number of pitches, but if he digested about 5 innings, he would have done his job,” but he could not fill 5 innings.
Jang Jae-young showed off his pitch by throwing a ball with a maximum speed of 155 km per hour. His fastball average velocity also reached 150 km/h.
But Jegu was anxious. Jang Jae-young threw 82 balls that day, and 38 of them were balls. He struck out only three and gave up five walks.
Jang Jae-young started two times in 2021, the first year of his professional career. Gocheok Doosan Bears on April 29, 2021, Sajik Lotte Giants on September 12, 2021. In the match against Doosan, he scored 5 earned runs in ⅓ innings, and in the match against Lotte, he became a losing pitcher with 1 earned run in 2 innings.
Other than that, Jang Jae-young, who mainly played as a bullpen pitcher, could not win a rescue victory.
On this day, he failed to complete 5 innings, and as the team was substituted in the top of the 5th inning, trailing 0-3, his first victory in his debut promised the next one.
After graduating from Deoksu High School in 2021, Jang Jae-young, who received Kiwoom’s first nomination, received a down payment of 900 million won and received high expectations. However, due to his chronic insecurity, he did not perform as well as expected.
Jang Jae-young, who perfected his pitching while playing for Geelong Korea in the Australian Professional Baseball League (ABL) last fall메이저놀이터, showed a different appearance in the spring camp and secured a starting spot.
However, he still showed regret in the first pitch on this day, when he took his first step with 5 starts.
Jang Jae-young sent Hong Chang-ki a walk in the first inning. He threw 3 balls in a row on a 1-ball-2 strike.
Jang Jae-young, who induced a double hit by throwing 4 fastballs at 150km/h in succession to follow-up hitter Moon Seong-joo, caught Kim Hyun-soo as a floating ball in center field and finished the first inning.
Jang Jae-young, who passed the first inning well, was hit with a double in the middle left by Austin Dean, the lead batter, in the beginning of the second inning, and was hit right-handed by Oh Ji-hwan, giving LG a first run.
He threw 3 sliders to Park Dong-won and struck out on 3 pitches, but gave up a walk to Moon Bo-kyung. Jang Jae-young, who continued the crisis of 1 out 1 and 3 base by allowing second base runner Oh Ji-hwan to steal third base, was hit by a sacrifice fly by Seo Geon-chang. He caught Park Hae-min with a floating ball in right field and did not concede an additional point.
Jang Jae-young sent Hong Chang-ki a walk in the beginning of the 3rd inning. Hong Chang-ki stole second base and was out, but gave another walk to Moon Seong-joo.
Kim Hyun-soo hit right-handed and faced a crisis with 1 out, 1st and 2nd base, but Jang Jae-young prevented the run. Austin was grounded to third base and Oh Ji-hwan was struck out.
The crisis was over in the third inning, but Jang Jae-young gave another score in the top of the fourth inning. It was the trouble that lead hitter Park Dong-won was sent out on a straight walk.
Jang Jae-young, who continued the crisis of 1st and 3rd base safely after getting a right-handed hit by Moon Bo-gyeong, allowed a sacrifice fly to Seo Geon-chang, increasing the number of runs to ‘3’.
Jae-Young Jang ended the inning by striking out Hae-Min Park with a fly to right field and Chang-Ki Hong with a strikeout.
Kiwoom replaced the mound with Kim Dong-hyuk at the beginning of the 5th inning.
Although he is still uneasy about his control, Jang Jae-young is expected to get more opportunities in the future. Coach Hong said, “I will not judge the result by one or two games.”