It’s weird. The details are different, but the result is the same. LG wins big, and Im gets the win.
This is the story of Lim Chan-gyu’s start against the SSG Landers. No matter who the opposing pitcher is, the result is the same. LG’s bats explode. The score is high, and LG wins. Lim gets the win. This is the fourth time this season. No exceptions.
At first, it was supposed to be. On May 23 in Incheon, Lim Chan-gyu started against SSG for the first time this season. The opposing starter was Oh Won-seok. The game was scoreless until the bottom of the second inning, when Lim hit a solo shot off Choi Joo-hwan to make it 0-1. But in the top of the fourth inning, Kim Min-sung hit a grand slam to make it 5-1, and the team went on to win 9-1. Lim pitched a scoreless sixth inning to earn his fourth win of the season, allowing one run on three hits in six innings.
On June 27 in Incheon, Lim and Oh Won-seok faced off again. LG led 1-0 through four innings. Im Chan-gyu pitched well, and Oh Won-seok kept the LG bats at bay. However, a four-run fifth inning, including a solo shot by Kim Min-sung, tipped the scales in LG’s favor, and the team went on to win 14-0. Lim Chan-kyu was again the winning pitcher, going six innings with one hit and no walks to pick up his sixth win of the season. These were two games where you might think that Oh Won-seok was weak against LG hitters and that LG could score a lot of runs and win.
However, on August 19, Im Chan-kyu faced Kim Kwang-hyun, and it was clear that he was not going to be an easy opponent. Im Chan-kyu hasn’t been on a good run lately either. He gave up the first run in the bottom of the second inning on three hits. But in the top of the third inning, LG exploded for five runs on five hits, including two doubles, and a walk. After that, LG’s batters didn’t score a run off Kim Kwang-hyun until the third inning. Lim Chan-kyu pitched five innings, allowing two runs on six hits and three walks before turning the mound over to his strongest bullpen in the sixth. After he was relieved, LG exploded for five runs in the top of the eighth to win 11-2.
Im faced Kirk McCarty in the second game of the doubleheader in Jamsil on Sept. 17. 메이저놀이터
Lim, who hasn’t pitched well in September, struggled early on. In the top of the first inning, he gave up four straight hits. He gave up one run and had the bases loaded. However, he struck out Ha Jae-hoon and Kim Sung-hyun to get out of the jam. In the top of the second inning, Lim Chan-kyu struck out three to stabilize the situation, but in the top of the third inning, after giving up a double to Choi Jeong, he gave up a single to Ha Jae-hoon to score one run. Fortunately, he induced a grounder to Kim Sung-hyun at first base to keep the runner at home and got Ahn Sang-hyun to ground out to third base to prevent further damage.
Then the LG bats came alive. LG had faced McCarty on Aug. 18 in Incheon, pounding out six hits over six innings but failing to score a run. This time was different. After Shin Min-jae led off the bottom of the third with a walk, Kim Hyun-soo and Austin easily tied the game at 2-2 with back-to-back doubles to right-center field, and Moon Bo-kyung followed with a two-run double to right-center.