The Kia Tigers defeated the NC Dinos 10-3 in an exhibition game held at Changwon NC Park on Tuesday local time. The match was the official debut match of manager Lee Bum-ho, who took the helm on April 13. Kia's batters made Lee laugh with five home runs. Choi Hyung-woo and Lee Woo-sung in the second inning and Socrates Brito in the fifth inning hit home runs. Bench members also hit long balls in the eighth inning. Seo Geon-chang hit a two-run homer and Kim Ho-ryeong hit an inside-park homer with a right-center hit.
"The players are generally in good shape. I've been doing well since the camp game, but I think it's been going through the camp and continuing to the exhibition games," Lee Bum-ho said after the game. "There were five home runs today, and it's encouraging that they were evenly distributed, not by a specific player, and although it's an exhibition game, I think the players will be able to play in the future with their confidence elevated."
The automatic pitching judgment system (ABS) has been unveiled since Tuesday's game. KIA's team tasted ABS at training on Tuesday and experienced it at the game on Wednesday. "The newly introduced ABS could be affected by height difference in the strike zone even if it was formed in a similar zone, but the ball decision was slightly different," coach Lee Bum-ho said. "I think it will be important for batters to get used to the strike zone that applies to them while watching the ball."
Pitch Clock was introduced on a trial basis and only issued warnings without any ball count sanctions. In the match against KIA-NC on Sunday, batters were more affected. There were 13 warnings in total, and 11 of them were violations by batters. Park Min-woo was warned twice in the first and fifth innings, and Park Geon-woo was warned twice in the fifth and seventh innings, respectively. Among pitchers, Lee Eui-ri violated the rule twice, and James Nail violated the rule four times.
Coach Lee Bum-ho said, "In terms of pitch clock, players generally tried to prepare quickly. I think we have to wait and see."
BY: 스포츠토토