"Home run in the second inning, keep the video rolling"

KT Wiz outfielder Park Young-hyun (20) was hit by a home run for the first time this fall.

"I don't feel any pain," Young-hyun said before the game against the LG Twins in Game 3 of the 2023 Shinhan Bank Throwdown KBO Series (KS-7 best-of-4) at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on Tuesday. I can throw today. I'm always ready," he said.

In his second year with the team, Young-hyun Park quickly established himself as an indispensable starter. In 68 regular-season games, he posted a 3-3 record with four saves and a 2.75 ERA, and won 32 holds.

At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, which concluded last month, he pitched brilliantly to lead the Korean National Baseball Team to a gold medal.

This fall, Young-hyun Park has continued his dominance. In four playoff games with the NC Dinos, he pitched five innings of two-hit ball with four strikeouts.

In Game 1 between LG and KS on April 7, he pitched a scoreless ninth inning with a 3-2 lead to earn the save. He was hit in the right shin by leadoff hitter Moon Sung-joo's line drive and sprinted to make the catch.

However, Park's scoreless streak was broken the next day. Still feeling some lingering soreness from being hit by a pitch, he gave up a leadoff walk to Oh Ji-hwan in the second inning of Game 2 against KS on April 8. After a sacrifice bunt by Moon Bo-kyung, he was hit by a fastball changeup from Park Dong-won, allowing a two-run double to the left-center field wall.

KT's 4-3 lead fell to LG, and KT went on to lose 4-5.

"It hurts so much to get hit in a big game, and I was very upset that day," Park confessed.

He watched the footage of his home run and the game-winning run over and over again. "Normally, I don't watch bad pitches. But the video was floating around so much that I couldn't help but watch it a lot," said Park, who smiled bitterly. "While watching the video, I was thinking, 'Why did I throw this? "I think (the ball) was too far up the middle, and (the opposing batter) got it on a good course," he said.

Watching the footage of the hit gave him even more motivation. "I thought, 'I have to win this game,'" Park said. I think it made me more competitive," Park laughed.

"We can't change the result of the last match. Now they had to focus on the remaining matches.

Park Young-hyun added, "We have to accept that the result came out the way it did, and we have to focus on today's game because it's really important. I'm going to go all out today," he said, adding that there was "no problem" with his leg after being hit by a pitch.

Despite the intensity of the back-to-back matches, Park is not worried about fatigue. "I feel fine (physically). We have to win," he said, his eyes shining. 슬롯