Kim Sun-ki, 32, of the Kiwoom Heroes, gave Kiwoom fans hope.
Kim started the game against the KT Wiz of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at the Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on April 2 and pitched six innings of three-hit ball, striking out three and walking two to earn his first win of the season. It’s been exactly 720 days since Kim’s last start against the Busan Lotte Giants on September 12, 2021, and he’s now 10-0 with a 5.58 ERA in 113 games, including seven wins, two losses, eight saves, and eight complete games.
Kim had a salty outing against the recently hot KT bats. He got off to a shaky start in the first inning, putting runners on first and second with no outs on an error by Kim Hye-sung and a hit by pitch, but he got Anthony Alford to fly out to right field and Byung-ho Park to strike out swinging while tagging out a runner trying to steal. He gave up a hit to Oh Yoon-seok in the second and a walk to Choi Byung-dae in the third, but no runs.
The fourth and fifth innings were easy, three-hit affairs, but after Kim got Kang Hyun-woo to ground into a fielder’s choice in the sixth, Kim gave up back-to-back singles to Kim Min-hyuk and Choi Byeong-dae. He walked Alford but gave up a single to Park Byung-ho. Two outs and the bases loaded. Hwang Jae-gyun flied out to center field to end the inning without a run.
Yoon Seok-won, Ha Young-min, and Kim Jae-woong then held the KT bats scoreless for three innings to preserve the win for Kim and Kiwoom.
Kim joined the Seattle Mariners in 2009 and played in the United States before being released at the end of the 2014 season. After fulfilling his national defense obligations with the Korean Armed Forces Athletic Corps (Commerce), Kim joined the Heroes with the eighth pick of the 2018 Secondary First Round, and has since split his time between the starting rotation and the bullpen.토토사이트
He recently joined the starting rotation. This was to fill the void left by Jeong Chan-heon. On August 22 against the Doosan Bears in Gochuk and August 27 against the Samsung Lions in Daegu, he was shaky, giving up five runs (two earned) on eight hits in four innings and five runs on eight hits in five innings, respectively, but not on this day. He threw his pitches with power.
Kiwoom’s starting lineup has been shaky lately. Homegrown ace Choi Won-tae was traded to the LG Twins, and Ian McKinney, who came in for Eric Yokish, hasn’t done much of anything. Veteran starter Chung Chan-heon is out with an injury, and Ahn Woo-jin is set to undergo Tommy John surgery today.
Kim’s performance was enough to give Kiwoom fans a ray of hope. With the news of their ace’s departure, it will be interesting to see if Kim Sun-ki can continue to perform well as a starter.