Oller completely blocks LG-centered team in Korean fall baseball debut game... 6 innings, 2 runs allowed

(Jeonnam Gwangju = Yonhap News) Reporter Jang Hyeon-gu = Adam Oler, a foreign right-handed pitcher for the professional baseball KIA Tigers, became the winning pitcher with a quality start (pitching no more than 3 earned runs over 6 innings as a starter) in his fall baseball debut in Korea.

In the second game of the semi-playoffs (semi-PO, 3 wins out of 5) held at Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, Jeollanam-do on the 18th, Oller gave up 6 hits and 2 runs in 6 innings against the LG Twins batting line.

He had eight strikeouts and allowed only one extra-base hit of a double or more, avoiding a large number of runs.

KIA coach Beom-ho Lee sent James Nail, who has been playing in Korea for three years, as the starter in the first game of the semi-PO, and explained, "We decided on the pitching order by putting Nail, who has a lot of experience in big games, first, and hoping that Oller, who is new to the Korean postseason, will get used to the atmosphere and pitch well in the second game."

Oller, who vividly witnessed the comeback of Nail, the winning pitcher in Game 1, pitched well by perfectly blocking 10 batters until Park Dong-won hit a double to right field with one out in the third inning.

In the 3rd inning, with 1 out and runners on second base, Koo Bon-hyuk hit a heavy hit, giving him 1 run, and in the 5th inning, he allowed 3 hits to Oh Ji-hwan, Koo Bon-hyuk, and Park Hae-min, allowing 1 run, but he did not invite any more crisis.

Oler, who pitched in 5 games against LG in this year's regular season and did well with 2 wins, 1 loss, and an ERA of 2.40, laid the foundation for a long run by holding the LG cleanup trio of Austin Dean, Moon Jung-bin, and Moon Bo-kyung to no hits in 8 at-bats.

In an interview with Yonhap News the day before, Oller, who was on the baseball mound in the fall for the first time in 7 years since 2019 when he played for the minor league team under the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB), expressed his determination, saying, "I will do my best to block the central batting lineup, including Austin and Moon Bo-kyung, and first baseman Moon Jung-bin, who has grown noticeably this year," and kept his promise as he said.

Thanks to the KIA batting lineup scoring 5 points with just one hit in the first inning, Oller's shoulders were even lighter.

Oler threw a total of 94 pitches, including 38 fast balls with a maximum speed of 154 km/h and 37 sliders, along with change-ups, curves, two-seam fastballs, and cut fastballs.