“I tried to get a two-strike lead”.

An ace, too. NC Dinos left-handed ace Kyle Hart, who leads the league in ERA, shook off the tiger jinx for his team and himself. He pitched well against the Kia Tigers of the 2024 Baseball Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field on Friday. He lasted six innings, allowing two runs on four hits and two walks while striking out six and walking two. He earned his eighth win of the season in a 7-4 victory.

The first inning got off to a good start. The offense pounced on Kia's Kim Do-hyun for six runs in the top of the first inning. It was a must-win game. The team had lost two straight games and eight straight against KIA. The mindset was different coming out of the gate at 6-0. Instead of taking it easy, they were determined to protect the lead.

It didn't go smoothly. In the bottom of the first inning, Lee gave up a double to Lee Chang-jin that sailed into the right-field corner. Kim Do-young flied out to right field, and Na Sung-beom struck out swinging. In the second inning, Kim walked and Choi Won-joon singled to put runners on first and second with no outs. He didn't falter and got the next three batters to ground out, strike out, and hit by pitch.

In the third inning, he allowed Lee Chang-jin to steal second on an error by the second baseman, but retired Kim Do-young and Na Sung-beom. In the fourth inning, he struck out 파워볼실시간 Kim Tae-gun with two outs. In the fifth, he threw a sweeper to Kim Do-young, who hit a two-run homer to left field. Kim converted a wild pitch into a home run. The sixth inning also saw runners on first and second.

Effectively controlled the KIA offense, which scored over 8 runs per game. In two games against KIA this year, he allowed 11 runs (nine earned) in 10 innings. His ERA was 8.10. Again, he had runners in scoring position in each inning, but was able to retire the next three batters with strong stuff, snapping the team's losing streak against KIA.

After the game, Hart said, “The team was a little bit down after losing the first two games. They had a good offense, so I tried to be a little more focused on the mound and pitch well. I tried to get two strikes first and try not to get into the count. I tried to get two strikes first and try not to get into a bases-loaded count,” he explained.

“The hitters were giving up a lot of runs, which made me feel comfortable pitching. If I made a mistake, the hitters did a good enough job to make up for it. I have to give all the credit to my batsmen for scoring a lot of runs in the first inning,” he said.