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It was an unprecedented display of anger by Oh Seung-hwan (41, Samsung Lions).

Samsung lost 6-7 against KT Wiz at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, South Korea, on April 16. The Lions led 5-1 through three innings, but their bullpen collapsed in the middle and late innings. With the score tied at 6-6 in the bottom of the ninth, left-handed reliever Lee Seung-hyun gave up a game-tying hit to Lee Ho-yeon with the bases loaded. After sweeping a three-game series against the LG Twins in midweek, Samsung fell to its fourth straight loss of the season, dropping to 25-35 with a win-loss margin of -10.

But it was Oh Seung-hwan who stole the show. Entering the game in the bottom of the eighth inning with a 6-4 lead, Oh got the first batter, Jung Jun-young, to hit a bunt single in front of the pitcher. He then gave up an RBI double to Park Kyung-soo. With two outs and the score 6-5, Ahn Chi-young laid down a sacrifice bunt to load the bases. With foreign hitter Anthony Alford at bat, Park Jin-man opted to make a pitching change, sending Lee Seung-hyun to the mound. After pitching coach Jung Hyun-wook signed for the change, Oh Seung-hwan walked off the mound and threw the ball he was holding into the third base bleachers.메이저사이트

His anger didn’t stop there. As he walked into the dugout, he threw up his glove and kicked it. It was an ‘unusual’ scene because he is not a player who usually shows his emotions. “I’ve never seen Oh Seung-hwan do this before,” said MBC Sports Plus commentator Lee Sang-hoon, who broadcast the game.

Oh Seung-hwan pitched against the Suwon KT Wiz on the 16th. Seung-hwan Oh publicly expressed his anger when he was replaced in the eighth inning. Courtesy of the Samsung Lions

The reasons for his anger can be interpreted in a variety of ways. It could have been a combination of self-pity for his poor pitching (one-third of an inning, two hits, two runs, and one earned run) and frustration with center fielder Kim Hyun-jun for not catching Park’s hit. Perhaps most notable was the timing of the substitution. Seung-hwan Oh had only thrown seven pitches when he was pulled with runners on first and third.

Oh is a specialized closer who leads the KBO in career saves (379), but against KT, he took the mound in the eighth inning instead of the ninth. Unless it was a two-inning closer, another member of the bullpen was likely to take the mound in the ninth inning, which meant that Oh wasn’t going to be used as a closer that day. It would have been a blow to his ego to be pulled in a clutch situation.

After an up-and-down season, Seung-hwan Oh made his first “start” since turning pro in 2005 in early May. It was an “extreme prescription” for his recovery. He’s been eating second-team food for a while, but he still hasn’t been able to settle down. There are many interpretations of his eighth inning appearance against KT. It was a situation where the player was sensitive to the outcome of the pitching change.

Samsung’s bullpen failed as a result. Samsung tied the game at 6-6 in the bottom of the eighth when third baseman Kim Young-woong fielded Park Byung-ho’s routine grounder to first base. They lost the game in the bottom of the ninth inning. Worse than the loss was the team’s mood. How to handle veteran Oh Seung-hwan’s public outburst is now the “real crisis” for Samsung, which trails the last-place Hanwha Eagles by half a game.