It’s been a long time coming. The 10,309 fans at the ballpark were treated to an epic pitching battle between two of the league’s best left-handed pitchers.
There was a rare moment when the starting pitchers of both teams met on the field during the game. In the top of the sixth inning, Kim Kwang-hyun hit a grounder next to the pitcher’s mound with two outs and 1.3 runners on base, and Kim spun around and threw to first for the out.
Benjamin, who watched the spectacular play from the third base dugout, patted Kwang-hyun’s butt in amazement as he walked up to the mound, and Kwang-hyun patted Benjamin’s butt in return. Knowing that this was his last inning, as he had already thrown 109 pitches, Benjamin acknowledged him by saying, “That was the best.”
They patted each other on the butt, encouraged each other, and applauded a great game.
On the 12th, SSG Landers Field in Incheon hosted the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ game between KT Wiz and SSG Landers. SSG started Kim Kwang-hyun, while KT started Benjamin. Recently, both teams had more losses than wins and were in need of a win.
Kim Kwang-hyun looked different from the first inning. Kim Kwang-hyun has been showing ups and downs lately, with talk of an aging curve, but this day was different. He got off to a good start by striking out the first batter, Kim Min-hyuk, and then struck out the side in the top of the second inning to reach 1,700 strikeouts in his KBO career. It was the fourth most in history, behind Song Jin-woo’s 2,048, Yang Hyun-jong’s 1,917 and Lee Kang-chul’s 1,751.
Kim Kwang-hyun, who pitched a no-hitter until the bottom of the fourth inning, gave up a single to Hwang Jae-gyun. However, he struck out Park Byung-ho on a swinging strike to end the inning. Kim Kwang-hyun was on a roll, but he made a mistake in the sixth inning. One out later, he gave up a 12-pitch walk to Kim Min-hyuk. The pitch count was high and he was struggling, but he kept throwing to close out the sixth. However, he did give up an RBI single to Alford. With runners on first and second, he induced Hwang Jae-gyun to ground out to shortstop to end the threat. A single by Park Byung-ho finally broke the 0-0 tie.
On the day, Kim threw 109 pitches, including a fastball that topped out at 149 mph, and allowed one run on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts. He earned his 12th quality start of the season (six or more innings and three or fewer earned runs), but received no run support from the offense and suffered his seventh loss of the season.
The reason why Kwang-hyun Kim got the loss despite pitching well was because of the presence of Benjamin on the mound. It was Benjamin’s so-called scratch day. His delivery was better than usual, and his cutter was sharp. He used his fastball and slider to get ahead in the count and then used his cutter to take away the batter’s timing. He was perfect until the seventh inning, when Choi broke his streak. A double to left field by Choi could have shaken Benjamin mentally, but he didn’t let it affect him and shut down the SSG offense until the eighth inning.
In total, he threw 103 pitches, allowing no runs on eight hits and no walks while striking out eight to improve to 15-5 on the season. 먹튀검증
The image of Kim and Benjamin, even though they were opposing pitchers, acknowledging and encouraging each other by patting each other on the back for their perfect pitches made baseball fans smile. This masterpiece pitching battle between the league’s top left-handed pitchers provided a heartwarming spectacle for fans.
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