adminHa Jun-ho, 34, will start tomorrow’s (Nov. 20) home game against the LG Twins, with whom he has had a bad history of clearing the bench, and will try to get his first win in his dream professional career.
“Ha Jun-ho,” KT manager Lee Kang-cheol said when asked by reporters about tomorrow’s starting pitcher ahead of the team’s 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League home game against the Samsung Lions at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on April 19.
Ha, a graduate of Gyeongnam High School, is a veteran left-hander who joined Lotte as the second overall pick in the 2008 first round and is now in his 16th year as a professional. This season, he appeared in 10 games in relief, posting a 2.89 ERA with no wins or losses. In a total of 9⅓ innings, he allowed 11 hits, five walks, five hit batsmen, six strikeouts, and six runs (three earned).
His KBO career record is 6-6 with no wins and nine losses in 115 games with a 6.49 ERA. In 102⅔ innings pitched, he allowed 101 hits (9 home runs), 74 walks, 10 hit bats, 77 strikeouts, and 82 runs (74 earned).
Ha has made two starts in the professional ranks. He started in 2010 while playing for Lotte and in 2020 while playing for KT. In 2010, he started against the Doosan Bears on August 4, giving up seven runs (six earned) on six hits (one home run) with three walks and two strikeouts in 2 1/3 innings. In 2020, he started against the Kiwoom Heroes on September 6, giving up two runs (two earned) on one hit with one walk and three strikeouts in 1 ⅔ innings.
Ha is expected to be the de facto opener for the 20th game. KT lost five-starter Uhm Sang-baek, who has been a stalwart of the KT starting rotation this season, on Aug. 25 when he was diagnosed with a microfracture in his eighth rib. As a result, Kim was selected as the fifth starter along with the existing starters of Cuevas, Benjamin, Ko Young-pyo, and Choi Jeong-sung.
KT was forced to accept a grueling nine-game schedule after their game against Hanwha in Daejeon on the 16th was canceled due to rain. First of all, Cubeas and Benjamin will not be able to travel to LG Electronics on the 20th because they started the first and second games of the doubleheader against the Hanwha Eagles on the 17th. Kim Min-soo will start against Hanwha in Daejeon on the 18th, and Ko Young-pyo will start against Samsung on the 19th. The remaining pitcher is Yeo Yoo-seong, who, according to KT officials, will start against Lotte in Suwon on the 21st. With the starting rotation empty, Ha Jun-ho was given the opportunity to make a surprise start.메이저사이트
He’s looking for his first career win, but Ha has a bad history with LG. On the 7th, he pitched a home game against the LG Twins in Anbang. In that game, Ha came in as a relief pitcher in the ninth inning and threw three hard-hit balls. He gave up hits to Oh Ji-hwan, Moon Sung-joo, and Park Hae-min, leading to a bench-clearing that saw players from both teams leave the dugout. After the game, LG captain Oh Ji-hwan said, “I think (I was) ‘ouch’ for a moment. It was a situation that could have been misunderstood, but when I was a runner, (Park) Byung-ho and (Park) Kyung-soo told me that it wasn’t intentional. It was unfortunate that the game ended in a tough situation, but the team won, so it’s okay,” he said.
On the other hand, KT’s starting lineup for the game on the 19th was as follows: Cho Myeong-ho (right fielder), Hwang Jae-gyun (third baseman), Kang Baek-ho (designated hitter), Park Byung-ho (first baseman), Alford (left fielder), Jang Sung-woo (catcher), Bae Jeong-dae (center fielder), Kim Sang-soo (shortstop), and Shin Bon-ki (second baseman). Samsung’s starting batting order was Kim Hyun-joon (center fielder), Kim Ji-chan (second baseman), Koo Ja-uk (left fielder), Kang Min-ho (catcher), Pirela (designated hitter), Ryu Ji-hyuk (third baseman), Lee Jae-hyun (shortstop), Lee Sung-gyu (first baseman), and Kim Sung-yoon (right fielder). The starting pitcher is Hwang Dong-jae.