After rough stretch, Landers starter hoping to build on scoreless outing

INCHEON, It had been so long since SSG Landers starter Oh Won-seok last went at least six innings without giving up a run that when he accomplished that feat Tuesday night, he didn't know how to react. Oh shut down the Samsung Lions over six frames while giving up just two hits, as the Landers prevailed 9-2 in their latest Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) regular-season game. Before nearly 16,600 fans at Incheon SSG Landers Field in Incheon, just west of Seoul, Oh retired the first 11 batters of the game and matched his season-high with seven strikeouts. The last time Oh tossed at least six shutout innings was June 16, 2022, against the KT Wiz. "Honestly, I don't remember that feeling," Oh said with a sheepish grin afterward. "It's been such a long time. This one feels pretty good." Oh is usually a fastball-slider pitcher, but on Tuesday he mostly stuck to his fastball and curveball. Of his 88 pitches, 62 were fastballs and 20 were curveballs, with only five sliders and one forkball mixed in. "Before t he game, the coaches and the analytics team told me my slider hasn't been sharp lately, and they suggested I should try to mix it up a little," Oh said. "I ended up throwing a lot of curveballs and I think it messed up with the hitters' timing today." Though Oh put up zeroes on the board, he did run into some trouble. In the top of the fourth, he threw 11 straight balls, walking two batters and then falling behind 3-0 against No. 5 hitter Lee Jae-hyeon. The Landers were up 4-0 at that point. "When I fell 3-0 in that count, I was just numb," Oh said. "I tried to aim for the middle of the zone and throw it as hard as I could." That strategy worked, as Oh battled back a full count before getting Lee to ground out to shortstop. Then in the sixth, Oh allowed back-to-back singles against the bottom of the order with two outs. Leadoff man Ryu Ji-hyuk smoked a grounder down the first base line for what could have been a two-run double. First baseman Ko Myeong-jun bailed out Oh, making an outstanding diving grab and stepping on the base to end the rally and the inning. "The defense was awesome all game," Oh said, before adding, "I owe Myeong-jun a nice dinner." Oh had a rough outing last Wednesday, when he gave up six runs in five innings on three hits. He also walked three batters and hit two others. Before Tuesday's game, Landers manager Lee Sung-yong told reporters that he wanted Oh, soft-spoken by nature, to start showing a little more fight on the mound. Oh said he appreciated Lee's pep talk last week. "I think I've been expressing my emotions during games in my own ways," Oh added. "It's not like I am going to throw down my glove. But I understand what the manager wants to say." Oh lowered his ERA from 5.63 to 4.89, and he wants to ride this momentum the rest of this season. "I've had way too many starts where the bottom just fell out in the fifth inning or later," Oh said. "And I made it through six innings tonight. It gives me a lot of confidence." Source: Yonhap News Agency