Lotte Giants pitcher Yoon Myung-jun, who gave up a walk-off home run against the Kiwoom Heroes on April 28, expressed his regret in an interview with an international newspaper on April 29.
“In fact, of all the crises I could face in a season,안전놀이터 (yesterday) was the worst,” Yoon said, “and I’m sorry to the Lotte fans who came to watch the game from Gyungan or from afar because they felt that I ruined a game they had won because of one ball.”
Lotte lost the previous day in Kiwoom, 5-7, in a come-from-behind victory. Lotte led until the top of the eighth inning behind Na Kyun-ahn, who pitched six innings of one-run ball. Trouble came in the bottom of the eighth. Kim Sang-soo, Lotte’s third reliever, allowed three consecutive singles to load the bases with no outs. Kim gave up a sacrifice fly to Kim Dong-heon to score a run, and then gave up a walk to the next batter to load the bases again.
Lotte turned to Yoon Myung-jun for their fourth reliever. Koo Seung-min, who had a day off in place of Kim Won-joong, the “long-haired closer,” who had pitched back-to-back games in the previous two games, was to be the closer. But the rest came at a cost. Yoon struck out the first batter on three pitches, only to give up a grand slam to Lim Ji-yeol.
“I didn’t feel pressured to pitch with the bases loaded. I was just thinking about passing the baton to (Koo) Seung-min or (Kim) Won-joong-yi, who were going to pitch after me, because the team was winning anyway.” “I was just grateful that they gave me the opportunity to pitch in this situation,” he said.
“I’m always doing my best, but now that the team is doing well, I’m going to put in more effort and try to get a good result,” Yoon said. “First of all, today is a rest day, so I’m going to go for a run to forget about yesterday’s bad memory for a while.”
Lotte pitching coach Bae Young-soo also expressed his disappointment with the previous day’s performance. “Yoon Myeong-joon was in good shape, so I put him on the mound,” Bae said. “I thought I struck out the first batter and had a good pitch, but I was a little disappointed with my last outside fastball.” “Even if I had to go back to that situation, I would have had only Yoon Myung-jun as an option,” he said.
Lotte will get a day off before returning to action on the 30th for a three-game midweek series against the LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul. In the first game against LG, Lotte will start Han Hyun-hee against LG starter Lee Min-ho.