LG manager Yeom Kyung-yeop recalled Park Dong-won’s sudden behavior ahead of the game against the KIA Tigers at Gwangju Kia Champions Field on Saturday. He explained that it was Park’s sole decision to sit in the manager’s seat after hitting two home runs in the Incheon SSG game on the 25th.

When asked about Park Dong-won’s decision to sit in the manager’s seat, Yeom Kyung-yeop said, “He did it on his own. He wants to be the director. I usually stand and only sit when I take a break. It means that Park Dong-won sees me easily. He knows me well.”

26th Gwangju KIA starting lineup

Hong Chang-ki (right fielder)-Moon Sung-joo (left fielder)-Oh Ji-hwan (shortstop)-Austin Dean (first baseman)-Kim Hyun-soo (designated hitter)-Moon Bo-kyung (third baseman)-Park Dong-won (catcher)-Kim Min-sung (second baseman)-Park Hae-min (center fielder), starting pitcher Adam Plutko.

Go Woo-seok and Baek Seung-hyun each pitched one inning against Seosan Hanwha in the Futures League. Seung-hyun Baek pitched the seventh inning, allowing one run on two hits and one walk with 13 pitches, and Woo-seok pitched the eighth inning, allowing one run on one hit with no walks.

• Is Go Woo-seok on track?

“I think I’ll pitch one more game and decide. I have 29 pitches. Seung-hyun Paik will pitch one more. We’ll see how he’s doing and maybe come up together. After the 29th game, I’ll decide whether to throw one more game or go up. I’ll leave it up to them.”

“After he comes back, we have to manage him like last time. He won’t pitch the first week.”

• With two closing alternatives (Ham Deok-ju and Park Myung-keun), it will be a natural management.

“He’s grown up well. It’s not easy to become a baseball player as you think, but the coaches worked hard and the players experienced success, and the process was well organized. It’s a good process and that’s why we’re winning now. Otherwise, we would have had a tough time. (In the beginning) we had three domestic starters, Casey Kelly 먹튀검증 was not good, Ko Woo-seok was not good and Lee Jung-yong was not good. April was a tough month to run, but we were able to hold on because of the results of our preparation in camp. Im Chan-gyu did more than 50 percent of the work there. Baek Seung-hyun held on in the beginning, and Park Myung-geun and Yoo Young-chan climbed well. Ham Deok-ju also picked up the pace. In the early innings, it was dark. Seventy percent of the pitchers were not good. We got lucky, and the coaches and players did a good job. I think after June and July, we can be the team we thought we were going to be, a little bit stronger in LG and a tougher team to play against.”

“It would have been nice to have Jae-won back in the outfield, but he’s out again. The pitching staff was filled as expected. On the outfield, it was difficult without Lee Jae-won and Son Ho-young, but senior Kim Min-sung and Jung Joo-hyun filled in well. We had young players on the pitching side and veterans on the batting side. I think we will be stronger in June and July than we are now. I thought May was a month of not pushing myself too hard.”

“We had a lot of disappointing games in April. We should have won at least four more games. But that’s baseball. The mistakes taught the guys, and (because of that) we had fewer blown saves in May, fewer errors and fewer double plays. We injected aggressive baseball, but April was lacking, and May filled in a lot of the details. In June and July, we’ll be more solid.”

• How is Lee preparing?

“I’ll start playing catch around next week.”

• Park Dong-won has seen an increase in his home runs.

“When it was bad, my head would move, the wall would collapse, and my body would fall back a lot. Sometimes I hit the catcher. They told me since camp that I just need to fix that, but I told myself that if I make up my mind, I can hit 30 home runs. It has to be an in-and-out swing. If he hits 30 foul balls a year and a couple of them go inside the foul pole, he’ll hit 30. You can hit outside pitches, too. It’s all about making contact and range. Park Dong-won has a good swing, but the results have not been good. He talks to his hitting coach a lot. The results are good, so there is trust between the player and the coaching staff.”

“My theory is 99 percent correct with hitting coach Lee Ho-joon and Mo Chang-min. When I first met him, I loved it, so I can push him harder. Everyone has their own opinion, but if there’s a difference, it doesn’t work. The hitting is going in a good direction. That’s why my batting graph hasn’t changed much, it’s been steadily improving.”

• On a player he’s most comfortable with.

“Hong Chang-ki Moon Sung-ju is the best. He swings at the line of the ball, so he has a lot of different directions, which increases his chances of getting an in-play hit. And she can’t shift defense.”