The 35-year-old Closer’s ERA 7.71 Mystery

Lee Yong-chan (35, NC Dinos) continued his acrobatic pitching apart from his team’s winning streak in the 2023 postseason. He allowed three runs in one ⅓ in the wild card game against Doosan Bears, two runs in three innings in three semi-playoff games against SSG Landers, and one run in two ⅔ in three playoff games against KT Wiz.

Excluding one or two games, he was close to losing six runs in seven innings and an ERA of 7.71. Every game was close. There was no Blon save, but it was hard to say that he pitched well. NC had no alternative, and manager Kang In-kwon replaced the message with faith, but it was a painful time for Lee Yong-chan as well.

After the New Year’s party at Changwon NC Park on the 8th, Lee Yong-chan said, “It was physically hard. The process was bad at the last minute. I ran out of energy. It was very hard at the last minute. So was Ryu Jin-wook and Kim Young-kyu. I wonder if it’s because we prepared for the WBC quickly. I’m preparing to throw the ball later than usual this year.”

His physical strength was already depleted during the regular season, and his pitching balance faltered during the postseason, according to his own diagnosis. He pitched faster than usual because of the preparation for the WBC, and he pitched for a long time. In fact, he was disappointed in his performance in 60 games during the regular season with four wins, four losses and 29 saves and an earned run average of 4.13.

The decisive moment for the energy depletion was the Hangzhou Asian Games. As Kim Young-kyu was called up to the national team, he recalled that he and Ryu Jin-wook put more effort into sharing the part. Lee Yong-chan said, “The seven to nine innings were thrown separately by three, but Jin-wook and I became tight at some point because Young-kyu was not there. All of a sudden, I lost my physical strength.”

Lee recalled the loss against SSG in Changwon on Oct. 8 (lost two hits, one homer, one walk, and three runs). At that time, he failed to raise his out count at all and became a losing pitcher. “I had a desperate attempt in the second half due to poor performance in the first half, but I ended up losing the game just because of that. As my physical strength deteriorated, I lost points in the postseason as well,” Lee said.

Lee said, “I learned another thing. I need to take care of my body more carefully when there is an international competition. I have been resting and exercising other than throwing balls. I am about to throw balls. I caught the ball early because of the WBC.”

When covering the Tucson spring camp in February last year, Lee sweated a lot while pitching in the bullpen for much longer than his juniors. His theory was that taking enough pitches would increase the speed. However, he is not trying to reduce the intensity of pitches. He is trying to delay the timing. “I always try to maintain that. Instead, I try to decide when to start pitching based on my physical condition,” Lee said. 스포츠토토

Lee Yong-chan is the closing pitcher of the NC Dinosaurs this season as well. “I think I have to throw more stably because I am a younger teammate. Last year, I was a little nervous in several games. I am going to think about it more and prepare for it,” he said.