The Samsung Lions have lost four straight spring training games. The games are just to check the performance during spring training and to see how the players are feeling. The results are not important. However, the content of the game itself is showing some troubling signs.
Samsung suffered a 3-18 loss to the Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) Nippon Ham Fighters in a scrimmage at Nago Tapic Stadium in Okinawa, Japan, on Sunday.
It was their fourth straight loss, following a 4-10 loss to the Chunichi Dragons on Nov. 11, a 1-13 loss to Nippon Ham on Dec. 12, and an 0-8 loss to Chiba Lotte on Nov. 14.
It’s nothing to sneeze at if you remember last year. Samsung put on its infamous training hell last year. The training sessions lasted from morning until late at night, and the fatigue was evident on the players’ faces. As a result, the team lost six straight games in the early practices.
However, the momentum slowly picked up. A victory over the Yomiuri Giants, a traditional NPB team, sparked the team’s momentum, and they finished the training camp with three wins and a tie.
The lack of a batting lineup is a common lament. However, the hitting may not be there yet. It’s hard to make any rash judgments just yet.
The bigger problem is on the mound. It”s not just a matter of giving up runs. It’s a great opportunity to learn from your mistakes and make improvements, whether it’s by utilizing the weapons and strategies you’ve honed, gaining confidence, or getting hit a lot.
The biggest problem for Samsung’s mound, however, is the pitching staff, which has struggled to find consistency. In all four games, they allowed seven or more walks. In all four games, he walked 33 batters. If we expand the scope to include wild pitches, it’s 42 in four games. He has allowed 10 or more wild pitches in each game.
The first pitcher of the day, Hwang Dong-jae, allowed one hit and one walk in one inning. It was a dead ball. He walked the first batter he faced and gave up two runs on a hit and a walk. Only after giving up one more single was he able to end the inning with a walk. After 24 pitches in the first inning, he turned the ball over to his second pitcher, Choi Chae-heung.
Choi gave up four runs on six hits (one home run) in two innings. He got out of the second inning, but gave up a solo shot to the first batter of the third and four more hits after that. It was a tough outing, but there were no walks.
The third pitcher, Park Kwon-hoo, gave up two runs on two hits and two walks with one strikeout in one inning. The fourth pitcher, Lee Jae-ik, was the only pitcher to throw a scoreless inning. He threw 18 pitches, none of them strikes, through the first inning.
However, Hong Won-pyo, who started in the sixth inning, gave up three runs on three hits and two walks, and Kim Seo-joon, who pitched one inning in the eighth, gave up seven runs (five earned) on six hits (two home runs) and six walks.
The offense was held to five hits. Pinch-hitters Lee Sung-gyu and Yang Woo-hyun and fifth outfielder Kim Young-woong had doubles, while David McKinnon and Jeon Byung-woo also had hits.
The question is, when can the offense snap the losing streak and turn things around like they did last year? How the pitching staff can settle down and start putting pitches in the strike zone will also be a key issue for Samsung in the remainder of the season.