Samsung Lions’ homegrown ace Won Tae-in, 24, continued his dominance over the Doosan Bears bats.
Won pitched six innings of three-hit ball with two walks, two strikeouts and one unearned run (unearned) against Doosan in the 2024 Shinhan SolBank KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Sunday.
From the first to the third inning, he was flawless. He threw 35 pitches and didn’t allow a single run.
In the fourth inning, they were less fortunate, but minimized the damage.
After giving up a leadoff single to Jung Soo-bin, Won Tae-in induced Heo Kyung-min to ground out to the first baseman. Jung raced past second base to third base, and Won, who was in the first base cover, quickly threw to third, but the ball slipped behind the third baseman for the first run.
Won didn’t falter after the error. He struck out Kang Seung-ho on a wild pitch and got Yang Ji-hyun to fly out to center field to end the inning.
In the fifth inning, Won got out of trouble. He gave up a walk to Kim Jae-hwan and a single to Henry Ramos. He then gave up a walk to Cho Sung-hyun to load the bases, but got Jung Soo-bin to ground out to first base. Won roared in celebration after getting out of the inning without allowing a run.
In the sixth inning, with his team leading 2-1, Won gave up a single to Yang Ji-hye with two outs, but got Yang Seok-hwan to fly out to center field to end the inning.
Won, who threw 92 pitches, handed the baton to right-handed reliever Lim Chang-min in the seventh inning. His fastball touched 150 kilometers per hour on the day, and his average velocity was 146 kilometers per hour.
Samsung won the game 4-2 behind a strong pitching performance from Won Tae-in. Won, who was outstanding again, improved to 5-1 on the season with his fifth straight start and moved into sole possession of the top spot in the league in wins.
In addition, he lowered his season ERA to 1.79 with a three-game (19 innings) scoreless streak.
After the match, Won Tae-in 안전놀이터 said, “(The roar) was a reprimand to me. I could have easily won the match, but I had a hard time and got myself in trouble. I was very disappointed and wanted to stop him.”
The streak of consecutive shutouts ended in the second game. “I wanted to continue the streak, but it was broken by my mistake,” said Won Tae-in. “After conceding a goal, I suddenly surged forward. The ball got faster. Suddenly, my fastball was hitting 150 kilometers per hour. It was like I woke up a dormant instinct. It was like I woke up my dormant instincts.”
With five wins in seven games already, Won is on pace to surpass his personal best of 14 wins in a season, which he set in 2021.
“If I win, the team wins, so it feels good, but I don’t have any ambition to be a multiple-win player. First of all, I want to surpass the number of wins (7) I recorded last year,” he said, adding, “The pace is faster than I expected. Thank you to the beasts.”
Won didn’t expect his strong start to the season at all. “I thought I would struggle at the beginning of the season because I threw the ball late in spring training. I thought that if I held on, I would get better in the middle of the season, but I didn’t expect this level of performance in the beginning,” he said. “I don’t have any pressure on the mound and I don’t have any greed. I was thinking, ‘I might get hit,’ so I was relaxed, and I think that’s why I got better results.”