Samsung Lions Oh Seung-hwan (41) showed off a counterattack in charge of the mound from his starting debut to the 5th inning.
Oh Seung-hwan started안전놀이터 as a starting pitcher in the home game against Kiwoom Heroes in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on the 3rd. 19 years after his professional debut, Oh Seung-hwan was on the starting mound for the first time.
He picked up a run from the first inning. Oh Seung-hwan blocked Lee Jung-hoo with a pitcher’s ground ball, but Park Chan-hyeok contributed a double to left center. Afterwards, he announced an uneasy start by getting hit by a two-run home run by Kim Hye-sung. Oh Seung-hwan gave up a double to right-middle to follow-up hitter Edison Russell, but overcame the hurdle by tying Lee Won-seok with a shortstop ground ball and Lee Hyeong-jong with a floating ball in center field.
In the second inning, he also lowered his head at the long hit. Seung-hwan Oh seemed to end the inning cleanly by striking out Byeong-wook Lim and Hwi-jip Kim in a row with swinging misses. However, he was hit by Lee Ji-young, who exited the side of the second baseman, and allowed Lee Jung-hoo a 1-run double to the left.
Episode 3 was neat. Oh Seung-hwan blocked Kim Hye-seong with a ground ball to second baseman, then struck out Russell with a fly ball to right field and Lee Won-seok with a swinging miss.
Oh Seung-hwan also had a streak in the 4th inning. He struck out Lee Hyeong-jong by looking, struck out Byeong-wook Lim with a knockout strike, and blocked Kim Hwi-jip with a foul fly by first baseman.
Oh Seung-hwan’s rise was clear. In the 5th inning, after catching Lee Ji-young and Lee Jung-hoo with ground balls, Park Chan-hyeok struck out on a swing.
Oh Seung-hwan, who recorded 73 pitches, passed the mound baton to Choong-yeon Choi in the 6th inning. Initially, Samsung set the maximum number of pitches for Oh Seung-hwan to be 60, but he threw far more pitches than planned.
On this day, Oh Seung-hwan recorded 5 hits (1 home run), 6 strikeouts and 3 runs in 5 innings. It is the first time Oh Seung-hwan has been responsible for 5 innings in a game. It was painful to allow long hits leading to conceded points. Four out of five hits (one home run, three doubles) were long hits. However, Oh Seung-hwan overcame the pain in the beginning and kept the mound until the 5th inning, ending all the remaining 3 innings with a tripartite retreat.
Meanwhile, Samsung made up for one point with Jose Pirella’s timely hit at the end of the 3rd inning, and is pursuing 1-3.