“LOTTE Fall Baseball? It’s Possible” Doosan’s 12-game winning streak ends, outfielder properly impressed by Lotte baseball

Lotte substitute foreign pitcher Aaron Wilkerson, 34, was properly impressed by Giants baseball in his KBO debut.

The Lotte Giants won their 10th game of the season against the Doosan Bears of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League 7-2 on April 26 at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. The result snapped Doosan’s 12-game winning streak and snapped a three-game losing streak to improve to 40-42 on the season. They are in sixth place, 0.5 games behind fifth-place KT.

The key to the victory was new foreign pitcher Wilkerson. He made his debut in July against Dusan, who leads the team in batting average, and earned the win with five innings of six-hit ball, two walks, three strikeouts and two runs. He threw 76 pitches and got the job done right from the start with a variety of pitches, including a slider, cutter, changeup, and curveball under a fastball that topped out at 149 mph. His strike (53) to ball (23) ratio was ideal. Lotte manager Larry Sutton praised Wilkerson, saying, “For his first start in the KBO, he was impressive throughout the game with excellent control.”

“I was a little nervous because it was my first game, but I tried to stay as calm as possible and use my strengths to throw the ball in the strike zone,” Wilkerson said after the game, “I was happy with my pitching. The bats were scoring a lot of runs, so I was able to pitch steady, and I had a good lead from my catcher, Yoo Kang-nam. The target was big and the framing was good. I’m a foreign pitcher, so my signature might be different, but he led me perfectly. I felt like he was playing for me. I only shook my head once,” he said after the victory.

Wilkerson was making his KBO debut under some pressure. His team was in the midst of a three-game losing streak, and his opponent was Doosan, who was riding an 11-game winning streak. When asked if he felt overwhelmed, Wilkerson said, “A losing streak or a winning streak is bound to end at some point. It was nice to be able to break the streak for our team,” he said with a smile.

Lotte boldly released “hairy ace” Dan Straley, who was struggling, and brought in Wilkerson for a total of $350,000 on Aug. 18. It was the first time Lotte had used a foreign pitcher in the fall for six years since 2017.

Wilkerson made his debut in Boston’s amateur free agency in 2014 after playing college ball and independent leagues. He has appeared in 14 games in the majors and has a career minor league record of 58-31 with a 3.42 ERA in 158 games and 783⅔ innings. Last year, he was 5-5 with a 4.08 ERA in 14 games and 70⅔ innings for the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball.

Wilkerson was impressed with the LOTTE baseball team on the day. He said, “Lotte looks like a team that is ready to fight. Every game is important from here on out, and I think they’re a good enough team to go to fall ball. They have a very good defense,” he said with confidence.바카라사이트

Wilkerson’s next start, barring any changes, is likely to be the three-game series in Sasik NC next month from January 1-3. “For me, it’s more powerful when you have a lot of people cheering you on,” he said in front of his home fans. I’m looking forward to it because I know how many of our home fans are going to come and how much energy they’re going to bring,” he said.