Kiwoom Ha Young-min

Right-handed pitcher Ha Young-min (29) of the professional baseball Kiwoom Heroes pitched a valuable pitch in his first appearance of the season.

Ha Young-min appeared as a starting pitcher against the LG Twins in the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League held at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 30th, and pitched 5 innings with 2 hits, 1 walk, 3 strikeouts, and no runs.

He threw just 70 balls, and made good use of fastballs, forkballs, curves, and sliders at a maximum speed of 147 km/h.

Ha Young-min, who played in the bullpen until last year, competed ahead of this season and succeeded in securing a spot in the starting lineup.

Domestic pitchers such as Ahn Woo-jin and Jeong Chan-heon, who were the starting pitchers until last year, left the team due to surgery and military service, and succeeded in gaining the trust of the coaches.

The opponent he faced in his first appearance of the season was LG, who won the KBO League combined championship last year.

Ha Young-min was not at all intimidated and calmly put the LG batting lineup to rest.

Ha Young-min, who easily got through the first inning with a three-way error, faced a crisis in the second inning when he gave up a hit to Austin Dean and a walk to Park Dong-won, with two outs and runners on first and second base.

Here, Moon Seong-ju gave up a hit, but center fielder Park Soo-jong made up the last out in the second inning with a diving catch, giving strength to Ha Young-min.

After that, Ha Young-min quickly erased the inning.

He only gave up a single to leadoff hitter Kim Hyun-soo in the 4th inning, and the 3rd and 5th innings were down to 3 batters.

After one out in the 5th inning, Moon Seong-ju’s fast ball hit his thigh directly, but he calmly threw the ball to first base and got an out, and even Shin Min-jae grounded out the infielder.

Ha Young-min handed the mound to Jo Sang-woo at the start of the sixth inning with a 6-0 lead.

Ha Young-min’s last win as a starter was on September 23, 2015, against the Mokdong SK Wyverns (now SSG Landers), where he pitched 6 scoreless innings.

The last starting win against LG was in the Mokdong game on May 30, 2014. He pitched well at the time, allowing one run in six innings.

Ha Young-min wore the Heroes uniform as the 4th overall pick in the 2nd 1st round in 2014.

He was a player who was called before Kim Ha-seong (San Diego Padres), his classmate, who was drafted in the second and third rounds.

As a rookie, he got a chance to play in the starting lineup, and after the 2018 season, he underwent surgery to repair his elbow ligaments.

He immediately completed his military service, returned to the team in 2022, and played as a bullpen pitcher until last year. 스포츠토토