Tanner Turley, who performed poorly in the first game of the wild card game, failed to show impressive pitching in the third game of the semi-playoffs.
Tanner took the mound as a starting pitcher in Game 3 of the 2023 KBO postseason semi-playoffs (best of 5) against SSG Landers held at Changwon NC Park on the 25th.
Tanner, who joined NC last August as a replacement for Taylor Widener (Samsung Lions), who was released due to severe ups and downs, is a pitcher whose strengths are stable game management and control. This season’s record is 5 wins, 2 losses, and an average ERA of 2.92 in 11 games (64.2 innings). Against this opponent SSG, he met once in the regular league and became the winning pitcher with a comeback pitch in 5.1 innings, allowing 8 hits, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts, and 2 runs.
However, in the first game of the wild card game against the Doosan Bears, which was NC’s first postseason game, he performed poorly, allowing 7 hits, 1 home run, 3 walks, and 5 runs in 4 innings, raising many concerns. He gave up a run in every inning except for the 4th inning, giving no sense of stability at all. The prevailing opinion was that his limitations were revealed as he was not a pitcher who threatened with power.
Accordingly, before the game, NC coach Kang In-kwon said, “In the last game (WC 1st game), many sliders that went in to catch the count were hit correctly. As a result, Tanner was also embarrassed. We talked about that today. “I hoped he would avoid using sliders to easily count and use 100% of his strength from the first inning,” he said, adding, “If that happens, he is a stable player, so I think he will show a good pitch.”
However, on this day, Tanner was shaken from the beginning and did not show much. In the top of the first inning, he was hit by a hit to right field by leadoff hitter Choo Shin-soo. Guillermo Heredia (second baseman fly) and Choi Jeong (left fielder fly) both led the way with base hits, but allowed a hit to right-center to Han Yu-seom, ending up with runners on first and third base with two outs. Fortunately, he tied Ha Jae-hoon on a fly to shortstop and did not give up a run.
In the bottom of the first inning, the NC batting team gave Tanner 3 runs with Kwon Hee-dong’s 2-RBI hit to right field and Seo Ho-cheol’s 1 RBI hit to left-center double.
However, Tanner did not show a good pitch even in the top of the second inning. He guided Park Seong-han to a ground ball to shortstop, but gave up successive hits to Kim Seong-hyun and Oh Tae-gon, creating a crisis for himself. The follow-up batter, Kim Min-sik, struck out on a swing, but walked Choo Shin-soo, leaving the bases loaded with two outs. Here, Tanner gave up the first run, giving up a walk to Heredia.
Tanner never found stability. With the bases loaded and two outs, Choi Jeong threw a 141km fastball with two pitches and was hit by a come-from-behind bases-loaded ball that went over the left field wall. It was a moment when the score suddenly flipped to 3-5. Afterwards, he ended the inning by striking out the follow-up batter, Han Yu-seom.
NC made the game score 7-5 in the bottom of the second inning with Park Geon-woo’s RBI single to right and Jason Martin’s dominant three-run hit.
However, Tanner never made it past the top of the third inning. He gave up a walk to lead hitter Ha Jae-hoon. Then, the NC bench eventually replaced the pitcher with veteran right-hander sidearm Lee Jae-hak. Jaehak Lee did not give up a home run to Tanner’s runner, and his earned runs did not increase.
The final score was 5 hits, 1 home run, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts, and 5 runs in 2 innings. Of a total of 62 balls thrown, the fastball (33 balls), which was measured at a maximum speed of 145 km/h, was used the most, along with sliders (22 balls), change-ups 짱구카지노(6 balls), and curves (1 ball).
Meanwhile, NC, which ended the season in 4th place in the regular league, defeated Doosan 14-9 in the first game of the wild card match and advanced to the semi-playoffs in one game under the principle of giving 1 win, which is the advantage of 4th place. NC, which won both the first game (4-3) and the second game (7-3) in enemy territory, will enter the playoffs as a partner of second place KT Wiz if it wins this game as well. As the bottom of the third inning approaches, NC is ahead 7-5.