Dan Strayley (35, Lotte Giants) finally recorded his first quality start this season (with less than 3 earned runs in 6 or more starting innings).
Strayley started in the 2023 KBO League regular season home game against the Doosan Bears held at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on the 9th and pitched well with 6 hits (1 home run), 1 walk, 5 strikeouts and 2 runs in 6 innings. The number of pitches was 96, and the strike reached 72 pitches.
Strayley was a foreign ace guarding the Lotte mound in 2020. His record at the time was 15-4 with a 2.50 ERA and 205 strikeouts. The following year, he went 10-12 with an average ERA of 4.07 and left for the United States, but last year he returned as a substitute and succeeded in reviving with an ERA of 2.31 with 4 wins and 2 losses in 11 games.
Lotte chose to renew the contract believing in what it showed in 2022, but what Strayley showed in April was different from what it looked like in 2020 or 2022. He only had an ERA of 5.82 in 5 games and 2 losses until the game on the 9th. I was so anxious that there was no quality start. The team ran for 9 consecutive wins, but Alcantara’s contribution was negligible in the process.
He showed a different appearance in his first appearance in May. He showed a pitch reminiscent of his heyday with a fastball of 148 km per hour. Above all, his aggressive pitching stood out. Strayley, who had only a strike rate of 61% in April, caught the Doosan lineup with aggressive pitching with a strike rate of 76% that day.
Strayley, who started with a three-way offense in the first inning, was presented with a first run at the end of the first inning. The batting line scored a point with Jack Rex’s timely hit. However, he conceded a counterattack right after scoring. Strayley first got two out counts at the end of the second inning, but tied the game with a left-handed home run to Heo Kyung-min.
It wasn’t that he overpowered the other line. He gave up on base every inning. In the third inning, after getting a right-handed hit by lead batter Lee Yu-chan, he faced a risk of conceding a run with a sacrifice bunt. For Doosan, Jose Rojas hit the base with a sand dune, and Kim Jae-hwan hit a sacrifice fly to turn the game around.
If it was Strayley in April, it would have collapsed as it was, but this day was different. Strayley, who calmly completed the innings without allowing additional runs even after conceding runs in the 3rd inning, finished the 4th inning without conceding even after allowing multiple hits. He gave another long hit to Heo Gyeong-min, who had hit a home run after one out, and Yang Chan-yeol also hit consecutive hits. However, Heo Gyeong-min could not come home due to Yang Chan-yeol’s hit, and escaped the crisis by thinning out Park Gye-beom with a looking strikeout and Lee Yu-chan with a floating ball in center field in a 1st and 3rd base situation.
From episode 5, he regained his sense of stability. In the beginning of the 5th inning, Strayley had a game with lead hitter Sue-Bin Sue, who went all the way to 8 pitches, but got a looking strikeout by throwing a changeup that hit the strike zone. After two outs, Kim Jae-hwan also had an 8-ball match, and induced a fly ball with a 145km/h fastball that entered the low zone and finished the inning.먹튀검증
Having saved the number of pitches with aggressive pitching, he got on the mound in the 6th inning as well. After turning the lead batter Yang Eui-ji into a bum hit after three pitches, he struck out Yang Chan-yeol in the situation of 2nd out and 1st base. In a game that went all the way to the ninth pitch, the changeup made the batter freeze again.
After finishing 6 innings, he handed over the mound to Kim Sang-soo in the 7th inning and completed his mission. It was a requirement for defeat, but a good fight was as valuable as victory in front of Busan fans. Although his pitch was not as good as in his prime, he also showed a decent appearance. He overcame a difficult game with his pitch and did his part by attacking the strike zone instead of the ball. He was definitely the ace of 2020 as much as this day.