1 hit shutout → 4K 1 run in 6 innings…Jamsil Jesus, who finished the first half with a smile, was disappointed at the start, but will continue to play an active role in the second half
1 hit shutout → 4K 1 run in 6 innings…Jamsil Jesus, who finished the first half with a smile, was disappointed at the start, but will continue to play an active role in the second half
Blog Article
The start was weak, but the finish was satisfactory in its own way. "Jamsil Jesus" Casey Kelly (LG Twins) ended the first half with a smile.
Kelly took the mound as LG's starting pitcher in an away game against the Kiwoom Heroes in the 2024 KBO League regular season at Gocheok Sky Dome in Guro-gu, Seoul on the 2nd.
From the bottom of the first inning, Kelly showed off her good condition. Lee Ju-hyung and Ronnie Dawson were respectively hit to center field and struck out. Kim had a hit to the right, but led Song to a ground ball to the first base to end the inning.
In the bottom of the second inning, Kelly's crisis management ability stood out. Choi Joo-hwan's right-center hit, Bae Sang-kwon's strikeout, Kim Jae-hyun and Kim Tae-jin's consecutive hits, and Jang Jae-young's fly to the right gave a timely RBI single to Lee Ju-hyung, but he also tied Dawson to a sickout to minimize run loss. In the bottom of the third inning, he led Kim Hye-sung to a fly to the left field and gave up a triple over the center field to Song Sung-moon, but put both Choi Joo-hwan (second baseman fly) and Bae Sang-kwon (three strikeout) to rest.
The sense of stability continued in the bottom of the fourth inning. He led Kim Jae-hyun and Kim Tae-jin to ground balls to the third base and fly to the center field. Jang committed a walk, but blocked Lee Ju-hyung with a fly to the right field. In the bottom of the fifth inning, he allowed Song to garner a hit to the center and a steal to the second base after increasing the out count against Dawson (second baseman fly) and Kim Hye-sung (left fielder fly), but he caught Choi Joo-hwan with a fly to the right field.
Kelly, who also came to the mound at the bottom of the sixth inning, finished his mission by handling Bae Sang-kwon (ground ball to the first baseman), Kim Jae-hyun (striker straight hit), and Kim Tae-jin (left-handed fly) all with bums.
His final result was seven hits, one four strikeouts and one run during six innings. With a total of 96 balls on display, he used fastballs (44 pitches) the most, while mixing curves (19 pitches), slider (17 pitches), change-up (13 pitches), and folk balls (2 pitches). The maximum speed of fastballs was measured up to 148 kilometers. With the team leading 2-1, LG gave the ball to its successor Kim Jin-seong, but the team lost 2-4, delaying its achievement of five wins (current record of four wins and seven losses) this season.
This was Kelly's last game in the first half of this season. No matter what anyone says, Kelly is the best foreign pitcher in the history of LG. Since joining the Finn Stripe uniform for the first time in the 2019 season, he has been the ace player with 68 wins, 38 losses and an earned run average of 3.08 in 144 games (875.2 innings) until last year. Notably, he overcame slumps to post 10-7 losses and an earned run average of 3.83 in the 2023 season, contributing to LG's overall win for the third time in 29 years since 1994 and 2023.
However, his performance was not so good this year. He only had three wins, seven losses and an ERA of 5.37 in 15 games before the match against the Samsung Lions on June 25. Naturally, there was talk of aging curves (a decline in skills due to deterioration of athletic ability at certain ages) and at the same time, another foreign pitcher, Detrick N.S., was also sluggish, so LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop publicly issued an ultimatum, saying, "I think we need to change one of the two." 안전놀이터
Fortunately, Kelly started to rebound gradually. He led LG to a 4-0 victory over Samsung on June 25 by allowing one hit and no run in nine innings. His pitch was perfect, allowing no run until he gave up a hit to leadoff hitter Yoon Jeong-bin in the top of the ninth inning.
And Kelly showed her true value by pitching well again on the day despite the team's defeat. Manager Yeom Kyung-yeop said he will wait and see until the end of July to replace foreign pitchers. Will Kelly continue to pitch well into the second half of the year.