“I want to win as many games as I can.”
Right-hander Park Se-woong, who pitched a complete game to lead the Lotte Giants to victory, shared his aspirations.
The Lotte Giants cruised to an 11-1 victory over the NC Dinos of the 2023 KBO Baseball League on Friday at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan, thanks to a strong performance by starting pitcher Park Se-woong and a focused batting lineup.
It was a stellar outing for starter Park Se-woong, who threw seven innings of two-hit ball on 105 pitches, walking one and striking out eight to improve to 2-1 on the season. He also earned his first Quality Start Plus (7 innings of 3 earned runs or less in a start) of the season.
After the game, Park said, “The team needed a win, and it was an important game for me as well, so it’s nice to get a good result. I don’t have any words to describe it other than good,” he said, adding, “First and foremost, I want to thank the batters for scoring a lot of runs so that I could pitch comfortably in the early innings of today’s game.”
Park’s performance was aided by a good lead from catcher Shin Jung-geun. He also hit the game-winning two-run double to left field in the bottom of the third inning with the bases loaded to give Lotte a 4-0 lead.
“Before today’s game with (Jung), I told him that I like curveballs and forkballs and that it would be good to play with a location and pitch mix based on those pitches. I played with that in mind, and I think that was good,” Park said, adding, “He was sitting behind home plate and was very comfortable leading me off, (which) made it easy for me to throw.” Park expressed his gratitude to Jung.
He added, “When I was playing with Bo-geun (Chung), there were a lot of times when I thought I had the right pitch and the right signature. I think I had a very good tempo. I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Bo-geun Chung.” He bowed his head again.
Park, who participated in the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) in March, had a slow start to the season, perhaps due to the aftermath.
But in May, he rebounded perfectly. On May 12 against the KT Wiz in Suwon (1-2 LOTTE), he pitched five innings of five-hit ball with two walks and five strikeouts, and on May 19 against the SSG Landers in Busan, he pitched six innings of six-hit ball with three walks and six strikeouts to lead LOTTE to a 7-5 win.
Before the game, manager Larry Sutton said, “Park Se-woong is a good pitcher. He’s a pitcher who can throw good pitches, good pitches, and better pitches than he thinks.” “I think a pitcher is an offensive person. “I think a pitcher is an aggressor,” Sutton said, “and I think he lost his aggressive instincts early in the season, but he’s found them recently, and he’s been aggressive to the strike zone and making pitches that play to his strengths.
Park, who pitched well in response, explained the factors behind his recent rebound, saying, “I think it’s because I’ve been getting better at locating pitches in the strike zone instead of locating pitches that are too much of a ball after two strikes, and that’s why I had good results today.”
“I was worried about the fact that I only pitched about five innings (earlier this season), but I pitched seven innings in this game (following a six-inning outing against SSG on the 19th), so I’m not completely satisfied in that regard, but I’m feeling that I’m getting better and better,” he said.
Park’s resurgence took a lot of hard work. “I think I just kept doing what I’ve always done,” he said. I stuck to my routine and watched some of my favorite videos in between. I didn’t really pursue anything else, but I think doing those things helped.”스포츠토토
Park also said, “I think (my physical condition and pitching balance) was the best at the beginning of last year,” and “(now) I think I’m up to 70 to 80 percent, if not more, than I was at the beginning of last year.”
With the win, third-place Lotte, which took the three-game midweek series in a sweep, improved to 24-15 and remained two games behind the first-place LG Twins (28-1). They are just one game behind the second-place SSG Landers (27 wins, 1 tie, 16 losses).
“When any team wins a game, the mood is good, and when they lose even one game, the mood is bad. The reason why the mood is good is because we are winning all the games well,” Park explained. Finally, he said, “When we are good, we need to widen our winning and losing margins. That way, even if we’re playing badly, we can shorten (the streak). It’s like we want to win a lot while we can.”