I was in group 2 for over 5 months… The transfer student who didn’t give up gave a breather to the tired Hanwha team with a ‘surprising 3-game series’.
Hanwha right-handed pitcher Lee Min-woo (30) is breathing in the team’s bullpen at the end of the season. Although he was in the 2nd team for over 5 months, he did not give up and waited quietly for the opportunity that came his way.
Lee Min-woo was called up to the first team ahead of the Daejeon KT match on the 7th. With Kang Jae-min, a key bullpen player, missing due to elbow pain, he was registered as a first-team entry for the season. Lee Min-woo, who had been in the second team for 159 days after the season opened on April 1, received a long-awaited call-up to the first team. He then responded to the wait by taking the mound for three consecutive days in the Gocheok Kiwoom match on the 8th and 10th.
His first appearance on the 8th was not without luck. Sang-won Park and Dae-kyung Yoon took a break, and the bullpen was activated from the 6th inning, leading to a 4-3 lead in the 8th inning. After being hit by Song Seong-moon with one out, Jeong Eun-won missed Jeon Byeong-woo’s ground ball to second base and the game was ruled out. It was disappointing because, had it been normal, the inning could have ended in a double play.
But he wasn’t frustrated. In the second game of the doubleheader on the 9th, Lee Min-woo took the mound in the 6th inning with the score tied 1-1, and easily retired Lim Ji-yeol (right field fly ball), Kim Dong-hyun (third baseman fly ball), and Kim Joo-hyung (right field fly ball) with 11 balls. Hanwha won 3-1 with Noh Si-hwan’s double hitting the winning run in the 7th inning, and Lee Min-woo earned a relief win.
Then, in the game on the 10th, Lee Min-woo retired Park Chan-hyuk (shortstop grounder), Kim Hwi-jip (shortstop grounder), and Kim Si-ang (center fielder fly ball) in the 7th inning, leading 9-7. He also won his first hold of the season, laying a stepping stone to the team’s 9-8 victory.
Although it was a 3-game series, it was efficient with a total of 37 pitches. His four-seamer, which was measured at a maximum speed of 145km, shined with his ability to catch fastballs, including two-seamers and cutters. With Lee Min-woo giving the bullpen some breathing room, Hanwha swept 4 consecutive games, including a double header against Kiwoom, and completely escaped the fear of falling to 10th place with 6 consecutive wins.토토사이트
Lee Min-woo, who graduated from Hyocheon High School and Kyungsung University and joined KIA in the first round of selection in 2015, was given the opportunity as a starter, but did not grow as expected. On April 23 last year, he was traded to Hanwha along with outfielder Jin-young Lee in exchange for pitcher Kim Do-hyun. In the early days of his transfer, he played well between starting and relief roles, but was unable to maintain his consistency and ended the season in the second team. His performance last year was 25 games (44⅔ innings), 1 win, 1 loss, and an ERA of 6.25.
He was excluded from the first team spring camp from the beginning this year and stayed in the second team. He did not produce outstanding results in 32 Futures League games (33⅓ innings), with 3 wins, 1 loss, and 6 holds, with an earned run average of 5.40. His ERA rose due to two massive runs, but after July, it stabilized at an ERA of 2.77 in 13 games.
Lee Min-woo, who silently climbed onto the mound for Futures, also played the role of a senior pitcher by teaching his junior pitchers his pitch types. Even when he was extended entry on the first day of September, he was not called up to the first team and wondered if the season would end like this, but he did not give up. Even after September, he pitched two games and three scoreless innings, and is making good use of his first-team opportunity that finally came.
