That was the case for Kia Tigers foreign-born pitcher James Nail against KT in Gwangju on Feb. 2. Nail started against the KT Wiz at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, giving up six runs (unearned) on eight hits, one walk, and six strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings. Nail, who was 4-0 with a 1.47 ERA in his previous six starts, took the mound with his team trailing 3-6 and had his five-game winning streak snapped.
It looked like Nail would cruise until he gave up a leadoff double to Baekho Kang in the top of the first inning and then recorded back-to-back strikeouts to get out of the jam. The offense responded with a run in the bottom of the first and a back-to-back home run by Lee Woo-sung and Han Jun-soo in the top of the second, taking some pressure off Nail’s shoulders.
However, Nail gave up a big five-run inning in the bottom of the third.
After striking out Kim Min-hyuk, Nail gave up a single up the middle to Kim Sang-soo. After inducing a ground ball against Chun Sung-ho, Nail caught the ball and went straight to second base. However, 안전놀이터 추천 the ball sailed slightly to the right of the base and past the glove of Park Chan-ho, who was covering second base. Kim Sang-soo raced to third, putting runners on first and third. Nail induced another grounder to Kang Baek-ho, who caught it, stepped on the second base bag, and threw to first. This time, however, Park’s throw went behind him and he missed another chance to end the inning. After Kim Sang-soo singled home the first run of the inning, Nail gave up two more runs on consecutive singles to Rojas, Jang Sung-woo, and Kim Min-hyuk. A wild pitch put runners on second and third, but Kim missed a grounder to third, allowing two runners to score and the deficit to grow to five runs.
For the record, the run was unearned due to a fielding error.
Nail waited for support from the bats as he retired three straight batters from the fourth through the sixth innings. By the sixth inning, he had thrown 79 pitches. If he could get some offense going, he could avoid the loss.
But Nail’s hopes were dashed. In the top of the seventh, leadoff hitter Kim Gun-hyung’s ground ball was misplayed by second baseman Seo Gun-chang to load the bases. Kim advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Kim Sang-soo, stole second on a wild pitch, and came home on a double to left field by Kang Baek-ho after a walk by Chun Sung-ho. The run total rose to six, but again, the game was unearned. 토토사이트 모음 Nail raised his arms in disappointment after the run, showing his discomfort.
Eventually, KIA pitching coach Jung Jae-hoon took the mound, and Nail handed the mound to Kwak Do-gyu with runners on first and third. Kwak struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
All six runs scored by KT on the day were unearned, giving Nail his fifth quality start of the season (6+ innings pitched, 3 earned runs or less). It was not a day to smile, however.