LG’s Im Chan-kyu hasn’t been seen in a while.
LG lost a 3-7 home game against NC at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul on the 3rd.
Starting pitcher Im Chan-kyu had the worst outing. He gave up seven runs on seven hits (two home runs) and three walks in five innings.
The seven runs were his most this season, and it was the first time he gave up two home runs in the same game.
After the game, he stood in front of the fans with a disappointed face and couldn’t raise his head for a long time. Park Hae-min saw this and put his arm around his shoulder to comfort him.
Im Chan-kyu was particularly vulnerable when facing NC. He had lost five straight games against NC since 7 September 2018 in Jamsil. His last start against NC was five years ago on 4 July 2018 in Jamsil.
After starting the season as a long reliever and working his way up to the third starter’s role, Lim was 5-0 with a 1.97 ERA in 11 games (45.2 innings) before the NCAAs.
His May record alone is the best in the league. He won all four of his starts during the month and posted a 1.13 ERA.
Things didn’t look good from the start. In the first inning, he got leadoff hitter Son Asub to ground out to second base, but gave up a single to left field and a walk to Seo Ho-cheol and Park Gun-woo to put runners on first and second.
He then gave up a two-run double to Martin in the next at-bat to the right side of the infield to cut the deficit to two runs.
He then got Kwon Hee-dong to ground out to shortstop, gave up a single to Yoon Hyung-joon and struck out Do Tae-hoon to end the first inning.
In the second and third innings, he settled down to record three outs.
In the second, he fouled off Park Se-hyuk, struck out Kim Joo-won, and got Son Ah-seop to ground out to first base. In the third, Seo struck out Seo Ho-chul and Park Gun-woo before getting Martin to fly out to left field to end the inning.
He faltered sharply in the top of the fourth. He gave up a leadoff single to Kwon Hee-dong, a walk to Do Tae-hoon and a single to Park Se-hyuk to put runners on second and third. He then gave up a single to Son Ah-seob to put runners on second and third again. He then gave up a three-run homer to Seo Ho-cheol over the left field fence.