After 32 days, McCarty’s ‘two-hit shutout’ was his first and last PS appearance

SSG Landers foreign pitcher Kirk McCarty made a long-awaited return, but it was his last appearance of the year.

SSG lost 6-7 in the third game of the best-of-five semifinals of the 2023 KBO postseason at Changwon NC Park on May 25. After going 3-4 in Game 1 and 3-7 in Game 2, the team never won a game and punched its ticket to the playoffs.

McCarty took the mound for the first time in 32 days. He took the mound as the team’s third pitcher in the bottom of the fourth inning. After giving up a leadoff single to Son Ah-seob, 먹튀검증 McCarty got Park Min-woo to hit a foul fly to left field and Park Gun-woo to strike out swinging.

Park gave up a stolen base to Son and a throwing error by catcher Lee Jae-won put runners on first and third, but Martin got Park to ground out to the pitcher to end the inning.

McCarty looked shaky in the top of the fifth, giving up a single to Seo Ho-cheol and a walk to Kim Hyung-joon, but he got out of the inning without allowing a run and turned the mound over to Ko Hyo-joon in the sixth with his team trailing 6-7. McCarty pitched two scoreless innings of relief. It was the final pitch of the year for McCarty, who served as the team’s No. 1 starter for the first half of the regular season.

He made a start against the Literature Lotte on March 23, but lasted just two innings before being pulled. He felt pain in his right obliques while fielding and was replaced as a protective measure, but after a medical examination on the 25th, he was told that he needed two weeks of rest due to damage to his inner obliques and was unable to complete the regular season.

SSG waited for him. Along with Kim Kwang-hyun, McCarty has done a great job leading SSG’s starting lineup. McCarty helped SSG stay in contention at the top of the standings throughout the season, so all eyes were on him to see if he could pitch in the semi-playoffs after being lost for the season with an adductor muscle injury.

In a dramatic turn of events, he made the semi-playoff roster but didn’t pitch in Games 1 or 2. His body was not fully recovered. After taking a day off after Game 1 and Game 2, manager Kim Won-hyung said he could use McCarty in the bullpen for Game 3 on Game 25.

He pitched well for two innings, but SSG’s 2023 baseball season came to an end.