KIA Mengden, naked veil, first live battle

KIA Mengden, naked veil, first live battle

Suwon KT Jeonseo 4 innings 4K zero loss
Stand out with a heavy fastball of up to 147㎞
Check the power by making full use of 6 pitches
KIA lost to KT by 1-3

KIA Tigers’ new foreign pitcher Daniel Mengden, 28, is looking forward to playing in the KBO league this season. Mengden showed a zero-loss pitching with a strong pitch with a fastball of up to 147 km in the first real match, and announced his’one-two punch’ activity with Brooks.

Mengden started on the 18th in a practice match against KT held at Suwon KT Wiz Park and recorded 3 hits, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts and no runs in 4 innings.

Mengden threw a total of 51 balls against 16 batters and went down the mound. He cooked KT hitters by making full use of six pitches, including heavy fastballs of up to 147km, sliders, cut fastballs, change-ups, curves, and two-seam fastballs. Byeong-gu was a bit jagged, but the bold game and aggressive pitching were impressive, and the crisis management ability was outstanding.

Mengden showed an uneasy start as if he was tense with his first actual appearance at the end of the first episode. Leading batter Park Kyung-soo hit a big double in the left field. He then caught Hwang Jae-gyun with a ground ball for second base, but was in danger of 1 company, 1st and 3rd base by walking Yuhan-jun on a walk. However, he ended the inning without conceding by striking out the follow-up Kang Baek-ho and Almonte.

At the end of the 2nd episode, it was neatly prevented with a triad. Jang Seong-woo handled the ground ball at shortstop, Jo Yong-ho struck out a missed swing, and Jeong Jeon handled the right fielder flying ball.

At the end of the 3rd inning, after two deaths, Hwang Jae-gyun and Yuhan-joon were hit in a row, but they ended the inning with a zero run score by inducing Kang Baek-ho into center fielder.

At the end of the 4th inning, he was back with 1 strikeout and retired from the game and finished the start.

Mengden is a player who has been carefully recruited by KIA, hoping to be a high-level selection resource that can fill the gap of Yang Hyun-jong.

He debuted in the big leagues at the Auckland Athletics in 2016 and recorded an average of 4.64 ERA in 60 games (48 starting games) in the major leagues until last season. In particular, in the 2018 season, he recorded an average ERA of 4.05 with 7 wins and 6 losses, playing an active part in the team mound.

Mengden was a practice game on this day, but he showed a good pitch with no goal in his first real match and raised expectations with Brooks with a’one-two punch’.

KIA lost to KT 1-3 in the match on this day. After one shot in the 5th inning, which was tense at 0–0, Han Seung-taek scored the first goal with a left-handed solo home run against KT second pitcher Park Si-young.

However, right after the end of the 5th inning starter Mengden, left-hander Kim Yoo-shin, who was right on the mound, gave a tie by allowing a heavy hit, following the walk and an infield hit after the first death.

At the end of the 6th inning, Kim Yoo-shin scored a second run after winning a solo shot with superiority in the reversal to Almonte. Kim Yoo-shin scored 3 hits (1 home run) 2 shootouts, 1 strikeout and 2 runs (1 ERA) in 3 innings until the 7th inning, and went down the mound.

Then, Go Young-chang took over Baton at the end of the 8th inning and blocked 1 inning with no run, but at the end of the ninth inning Park Jun-pyo lost 1 to 3 with 2 hits and 1 run in 0.2 innings.