Kiwoom Heroes' Ahn Woo-jin (24) played his role as an ace despite his poor condition.

Ahn Woo-jin started the game against the Lotte Giants in the "2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League" at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 19th and won four hits, three walks, three strikeouts and two runs in six innings.

Ahn Woo-jin, who was briefly removed from the first-tier entry for a break after recording four hits, four walks, six strikeouts and one run in 5⅔ innings against Lotte on the 8th, returned to the first-tier mound on the same day. He pitched 97 pitches and used fastballs (49 pitches), sliders (24 pitches), curves (14 pitches), and changeups (10 pitches). The highest fastball speed was 156 kilometers per hour, but it was often seen that the fastball speed was low. The lowest fastball speed was 145 kilometers.

Ahn Woo-jin said, "I didn't do bullpen pitching because I thought I needed a break, and I thought just a catch ball was enough. However, when I went up to the mound, it felt different because it was a real game. It seems that playing pitching once had an effect. "The sense of the game came back because I threw it once and twice," he said.

Regarding the fact that his fastball speed was not as good as usual, Ahn Woo-jin said, "I tried to throw after looking at the strike zone corner when the batter seemed not to hit or threw the first pitch. There was a feeling of floating when I threw the ball with strength, so today I focused on throwing accurately while thinking about balance rather than throwing with strength. He explained, "I didn't strike out much, and my pitch was definitely not good, but I think I got a good result because I threw accurately and used a lot of breaking balls."

Ahn Woo-jin, who joined Kiwoom as the first draft pick of the 2018 rookie draft, has never failed to play a postseason since joining the team. This is because Kiwoom has succeeded in advancing to the postseason for five consecutive years until last year since it ranked seventh in 2017. Ahn Woo-jin also pitched in postseason games every year. 스포츠토토

However, Kiwoom is at the bottom of the league (46 wins, 3 draws, 64 losses) this season. It is 8.5 games away from Doosan (50 wins, 1 draw and 51 losses), which is ranked fifth in the league. The possibility of the postseason has not yet completely disappeared, but it is true that the probability is not high in reality.

Ahn Woo-jin, who was disappointed, said, "Since I joined the team, I've never been in such a dangerous situation in autumn baseball," adding, "I've been in the middle and top ranks, but I'm also upset that my ranking has fallen like this." I prepared hard, but it didn't go well, so I feel like I'm sagging. "But I think we should continue to play the winning game for now," he said.

Ahn Woo-jin, who has 8 wins, 7 losses and a 2.40 ERA in 22 games (138⅔ innings) this season, can achieve 10 wins for the second consecutive year if he adds two wins. Ahn Woo-jin, who laughed, saying, "I feel good when I win," said, "If the team wins, I'm happy and I feel less tired." No matter how good the pitching is, if you don't win, you don't seem to get anything. I think I feel a little more pressure if I win and lose the team. Now I think I have less than 10 starts left, but I really want to win 10 games. "There are only a few games left, so I hope you smile every game," he said, burning his will for the rest of the season.