Tuesday was just another day at the office for Kiwoom Heroes starter An Woo-jin, which means he was thoroughly dominant on the mound yet again.
The right-hander tossed seven innings of one-hit ball against the KT Wiz, helping the Heroes to a 1-0 victory in their Korea Baseball Organization showdown at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. An lost a no-hit bid at the start of the seventh inning, while striking out seven and walking one.
An, the reigning strikeout and ERA champion, entered Tuesday's game leading the league with 39 Ks in 25 innings to go along with a 1.08 ERA, good for third.
And after Tuesday's outing, An's ERA now sits at a tidy 0.84, though he still trails Erick Fedde of the NC Dinos (0.58) and Adam Plutko of the LG Twins (0.77).
An flashed his signature fastball from start to finish. He recorded his first strikeout with a 157 kph heater against Anthony Alford in the first inning. And An's final strikeout, against pinch hitter Kim Jun-tae with two outs in the seventh, also came on a 157 kph fastball.
This was An's fifth start of the season and a third outing in which he did not give up a run. In 32 innings so far, An has allowed only 16 hits.
He had a no-hitter through six innings, with only two balls even leaving the infield. Alford broke the no-no bid with a leadoff single in the seventh.
An pitched into his first and only jam of the game that inning, allowing Alford to take third base on a fielder's choice as he beat An's throw after a chopper back to the mound.
The miscue put runners at the corners with nobody out, while the Heroes were nursing a 1-0 lead. But An managed to keep the Wiz off the board, with a little help from his opposition, too.
Jang Sung-woo popped out to catcher for the first out. Then Moon Sang-chul, a backup inserted into the starting lineup in this game because of a strong history against An, put down a bunt right back to the mound. An fielded it and tossed it home to nab Alford at the plate for the second out.
Then An struck out Kim Jun-tae with his 95th pitch of the night, a fitting end to the type of remarkable outing that has become the norm for the 23-year-old.
An touched 159 kph with his fastball and averaged 155 kph on the day.
Also of note, An threw six sweepers, a new variation of a slider with more horizontal movements than the conventional slider. It's a pitch newly introduced in Major League Baseball this year, with Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani being the most famous pitcher to throw it.
An has been experimenting with the pitch this season, though he doesn't exactly need a new pitch when he has been mowing down lineups with a fastball-slider mix.
An has acknowledged his sweeper is a work in progress. And if he masters that pitch soon, that can only mean more bad news for opposing hitters.
Source: Yonhap News Agency