Is the Lotte Ace we knew really true?
Lotte has played 10 games so far. The result was 4 wins and 6 losses. However, 3 out of 6 losses were on the day the ‘Ace’ started, so the regret is inevitably multiplied.
Lotte’s ‘ace’ is Dan Strayley (35). Strayley joined Lotte in 2020 and established himself as Lotte’s ace, throwing 194⅔ innings and playing an active role with an average ERA of 2.50 with 15 wins and 4 losses. He led the league in strikeouts with 205, and it was no exaggeration to say that he dominated the KBO league with an earned run average of 2nd in the league.
Although he left Lotte with 10 wins and 12 losses with an ERA of 4.07 in 2021, Strayley, who returned to Lotte in the middle of last season, digested 62⅓ innings in 11 games and showed stable pitching with 4 wins and 2 losses with an ERA of 2.31, showing the dignity of Lotte Ace. succeeded in recovering
The starting pitcher for this year’s opening game was also his share. However, in the opening game against Doosan on the 1st, Strayley made an uneasy start by giving up 3 runs from the 1st inning, and then filled 5 innings with 4 hits and 3 runs in 5 innings. With 7 hits and 5 runs (4 earned), it was far from the pitch expected as an ace.
At that time, Strayley’s highest velocity was 146 km, but he did not show any taste of overpowering batters. As he went on, he pitched more weight of breaking pitches. Lotte coach Larry Sutton said, “Strayly gave up a run in the first inning, but afterwards he threw well, using more curves and cutters. The pitch seems to be fine.”
Strayley, who continued his uneasy walk, eventually had to go down without lasting even 5 innings with 4 hits and 4 runs (3 earned) in 4⅔ innings against Samsung in Daegu on the 14th. Strayley, who complained of pain in his left hamstring, had most of his fastball restraints in the early 140km range, and in the bottom of the 4th inning, Jose Pirella’s fastball restraint was recorded as 138km, which was quite different from what we know. In the bottom of the second inning, Lee Jae-hyeon hit a home run with a 141km fastball. After that, he rarely threw a fastball and pitched with a slider, but there was a limit to that.
It is a shocking pitch because it was Strayley,토토사이트 who once boasted a fast ball approaching 150 km. Even if the hamstring is a temporary problem, if this kind of pitching is repeated, Lotte will have no choice but to have a complicated mind. This is the season when Lotte has to produce ‘results’ this year. Of course, the disappointing pitch of ‘Ace’, who knew how to hold the center of the mound, needs to be looked at seriously in that it can put a brake on Lotte’s early moves.