Lotte, Davison, 2G consecutive QS, eliminated second-choice concerns
Lotte, Davison, 2G consecutive QS, eliminated second-choice concerns
Blog Article
Lotte Giants new foreign pitcher Tucker Davidson clearly showed his presence in front of Busan home fans. Lotte's choice of Davidson instead of Aaron Wilkerson, "Sajik Jesus," is making a wise decision.안전놀이터
Davison took the mound as a starter and allowed four hits, two walks, five strikeouts and two runs in six ⅓ innings in Game 3 between the teams against KT Wiz of the 2025 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on the 30th.
Davidson showed off his good condition from the beginning of the game. In the top of the first inning, he grounded out to third to KT's leadoff batter Rojas, and treated Kang Baek-ho and Heo Kyung-min with fly balls to the left field before starting with three outs.
Davidson continued to show good performance in the top of the second inning. He garnered three outs in the second inning by hitting leadoff hitter Kim Min-hyuk with a grounder to shortstop, Kim Sang-soo with a grounder to pitcher, and Moon Sang-cheol with a grounder to shortstop.
Davidson also silenced KT's offense by throwing out three outs in the top of the third inning with his momentum. He grounded out leadoff hitter Hwang Jae-gyun to the second base, Oh Yoon-seok to the third base, and Bae Jeong-dae to the front of the pitcher..
Davison struck out leadoff batters Rojas and Kang Baek-ho in the top of the fourth inning, continuing his perfect march with 11 consecutive hitters. After two outs, Heo Kyung-min and Kim Min-hyuk were on the verge of hitting first and second base, but they quickly settled down. He stopped Kim Sang-soo with a straight hit to the first base, ending the inning without losing a run.
Davidson also displayed outstanding crisis management ability in the top of the fifth inning. After leading hitter Moon Sang-cheol had a hit to the left and Hwang Jae-gyun walked to the base, KT Oh Yoon-seok's sacrifice bunt made him hit a crisis to the second and third bases with one out.
Davidson showed off his guts. He struck out Bae Jeong-dae and Rojas in a row to end the inning without losing a point. He overwhelmed KT's flagship hitters one by one, and met the requirement to become a winning pitcher.
In the top of the sixth inning, Davison also caught leadoff hitter Kang Baek-ho with a fly ball to shortstop, Heo Kyung-min with a grounder to third base, and Kim Min-hyuk with a grounder to first base to make the game's fourth three-out inning.
The problem was Lotte's batters and the bullpen. The batters scored one point each in the bottom of the fourth and fifth innings, but failed to clearly empower Davidson as they failed to score points in chances with runners on first and third bases with no outs in the bottom of the first inning, runners on first and second bases in the bottom of the third inning, and runners on first and second bases with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning.
As setup man Jung Cheol-won pitched three consecutive games until the previous day, the game was impossible to play on the day. The Lotte bench threw a game-winning move that left Davidson, who threw 93 pitches until the sixth inning, to the seventh inning.
However, Davison took the mound on the day after four days off following the starting lineup against the Munhak SSG Landers on Saturday (one run in seven innings). He had difficulty controlling the ball from the top of the seventh inning, possibly due to the aftermath of the starting lineup twice a week.
Davidson walked leadoff hitter Kim Sang-soo in the top of the seventh inning and got Hwang Jae-gyun on base with a hit to the right after one out, putting him on the first and second bases in crisis. When Davison pitched more than 110, Lotte replaced the pitcher with Park Jin.
However, as Park Jin-young allowed Oh Yoon-seok to hit a tying two-run double, Davidson's requirement to become a winning pitcher disappeared. Lotte tied the game 4-4 after a bloody battle in the 11th inning.
Davidson threw 112 balls, including fastballs with a maximum speed of 151 kilometers per hour and an average speed of 147 kilometers per hour, and sliders, sweeper, forkballs, and curves. He also observed the strike rate at 65 percent.
Davison pitched quality starts (more than 6 innings, less than 3 earned runs) both against SSG on the 25th and on the same day, but his first KBO League debut was canceled due to lack of scoring support from the lineup and bullpen difficulties.
Davison's smooth first step on the Korean stage is significant. The player is proving why Lotte gave up renewing its contract with Wilkerson, who threw the most innings in the entire league in the 2024 season, and brought Davison back.
Lotte's ace Charlie Barnes also stabilized against KT on the 28th with five hits, two walks, five strikeouts and one run in seven innings. Davison also showed off his good pitching early in the season, greatly reducing his worries about one-two punch.