It was such a fantastic pitch that the Scouts of the Major League Baseball did not want to see. James Nail (31), the ace pitcher of the Kia Tigers, made fun of Samsung Lions batters with his monstrous sweeper.

In the first game of the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO postseason (KS, best-of-seven series) against Samsung at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on the 21st, Nail allowed only four hits, two walks, and struck out six until the top of the sixth inning, including one solo home run.메이저사이트

It was a pitch that naturally made people say "crazy." The number of pitches that day was not expected. It was the first official game in which he returned to the court after fracturing his jaw joint after being hit by a physical hit at the match against Changwon NC Dinos on August 24. "I don't know about the innings, but I think I will lose strength in the 70s and 80s," KIA manager Lee Bum-ho said before the game when asked by reporters about the limit number of pitches that nail can throw. "If I lose strength, I will change to aggressive."

It was nothing but unfortunate. On the day, Nail's sweeper neutralized Samsung batters with wild moves. Despite the infielders' errors, he showed good defense by handling ground balls by himself several times, blocking five innings without allowing a run.

The only homerun hit by Kim in the sixth inning was a fly in the ointment. The sweeper hit the fifth pitch well with Kim's swing trajectory, and the hit went over the right fence. With Jang Hyun-sik, who took the mound as relief pitcher, giving a walk to the first and second bases with no outs, the game of "Rain Suspended" was declared. As a result, the final nail record will come out according to the result of the runner-up in the game, which will resume at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. However, the nail polish made people look forward to the next game with powerful pitching that could cover the gap of two months.

After the game, KIA manager Lee Bum-ho also said, "He threw the nail so well. I think he pitched well over 60. I'm looking forward to seeing better pitches going forward as he seems to have recovered his pitching capability and all aspects." To Kim Heon-gon's homer, he said, "I was going to let him pitch one more inning until the sixth inning. I tried to change the situation if there was a crisis, but the batter did a good job. That's why I don't care."

The KIA-Samsung match of the '2024 KBO postseason Korean Series 1' took place at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on the 21st. KIA starter Nail is pitching hard. /Picture = Kim Jin-kyung on standby

On the day, Kia Tigers' batting order consisted of Park Chan-ho (striker), Socrates Brito (left fielder), Kim Do-young (third baseman), Choi Hyung-woo (designated hitter), Na Sung-bum (right fielder), Kim Sun-bin (second baseman), Choi Won-joon (center fielder), Kim Tae-gun (catcher), and Seo Geon-chang (first baseman). The starting pitchers were James Nail.

Against this backdrop, Samsung's players Kim Ji-chan (center fielder), Kim Heon-gon (left wing), Lewin Diaz (first baseman), Kang Min-ho (captor), Kim Young-woong (third baseman), Park Byung-ho (designated hitter), Yoon Jung-bin (right wing), Lee Jae-hyun (striker), and Ryu Ji-hyuk (second baseman) were in batting order. The starting pitcher is Won Tae-in.

He got off to a bad start. He walked leadoff hitter Kim Ji-chan in the top of the first inning, and Kim Heon-gon survived due to first baseman Seo Geon-chang's catch error, which resulted in one out and one on the first base. Nail struck out Diaz with three sweepers and was hit by Kang Min-ho's double to the left-center field. However, he managed to overcome the crisis by swinging and striking out Kim Young-woong with a sweeper towards his body.

He also showed off strong movements of his two-seam fastballs. In the second inning, he threw eight two-seam fastballs against Park Byung-ho, Yoon Jung-bin and Lee Jae-hyun, and grounded out all of them. It was the first three-out inning with nine balls.

The third inning was the most critical. Shortstop Park Chan-ho caught Ryu Ji-hyuk's deep hit towards the third base and threw it to the first base, but it missed the mark. Kim Ji-chan sent Ryu to the third base with a sacrifice bunt, facing a crisis with one out and one out. However, Nail caught Kim Heon-gon's ground ball, tagged out Ryu Ji-hyuk, who was caught between the third base and the home plate. Diaz also threw a fly ball to the right field on the first pitch changeup to end the inning without losing a point.

The nail sweeper danced again in the fourth inning. He struck out three batters with 13 pitches against the slugging line, which leads to Kang Min-ho, Kim Young-woong, and Park Byung-ho. The sweeper, which came in suddenly from the outside, made Kim Young-woong turn his bat wide for nothing, and Park Byung-ho struck out the rookie without moving at all.

The team passed without much crisis in the fifth inning. Leading hitter Yoon Jeong-bin was grounded out in front of the pitcher after a video review. Lee Jae-hyun got on base with an infield hit that a fastball entered the glove of third baseman Kim Do-young. However, as Ryu Ji-hyuk struck out and Kim Ji-chan grounded out to the third base, Samsung failed to score again this time.

However, he experienced a painful loss in the last inning. He garnered two strikes well from leadoff hitter Kim Hun-gon in the top of the sixth inning, but his sweeper did not fall much in the fifth inning, leading to a home run. It was a well-hit ball with a flying distance of 110 meters.

He threw 76 pitches (38 two-seam fastballs, 31 sweeper balls, six change-ups and one four-seam fastball). The maximum speed of his nails was 150 kilometers per hour.