KIA Tigers left-hander Yang Hyun-jong pitched five innings for the second time in three games to spark a rebound.

Yang Hyun-jong pitched five innings of five-hit ball, striking out six and walking one (unearned) against the KIUM Heroes in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Gocheok Sky Dome on Wednesday. Compared to his last two games, this was a promising start to his resurgence.

Yang Hyun-jong, whose monthly ERA of 22.47 has been shaky lately after giving up nine runs in two innings against Lotte on the 2nd and seven runs in 4⅓ innings against SSG on the 7th, pitched a no-hitter today. He didn’t have a perfect outing, leaving runners in scoring position on three occasions, but his knack for minimizing runs was back.

Before the game, KIA head coach Kim Jong-kook said of Yang, “He must have been under a lot of stress himself because his last two games were not good. It wasn’t that he was out of form, but the opponent did a good job of analyzing. I don’t think he panicked. I hope he pitched well today and used this as an opportunity to get back to the Hyun-jong that we know. I hope he pitches well.”

In the bottom of the first inning, Yang gave up a single to Kim Hye-sung and then had runners on first and second when Lee Jung-hoo’s grounder was dropped by the shortstop. Yang gave up an RBI single to Russell to lead off the inning, but he retired Lee Hyung-jong.

In the bottom of the second inning, Song Sung-moon led off with a strikeout, and Kim Hwijip singled to put runners on first and second again. Yang Hyun-jong got Lee Ji-young to ground out to third and Kim Jun-wan to ground out to second. In the bottom of the third inning, he struck out three, including one groundout.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, Yang was hit by a pitch to Song Sung-moon. Kim Hwijip singled to right-center to put runners on first and second. Yang Hyun-jong struck out Lee Ji-young on a wild pitch to get out of the jam once again. The team’s bats didn’t help Yang Hyun-jong as they remained scoreless until the top of the fifth inning.메이저사이트

In the bottom of the fifth, Yang struck out leadoff hitter Kim Jun-wan, got Kim Hye-sung to fly out to right field and Lee Jung-hoo to ground out to second base for a triple play. However, his pitch count was high at 98 pitches (67 strikes + 31 balls) through the fifth inning. Yang was pulled in the bottom of the sixth inning with the score 0-1.