Baseball’s Enmanuel De Jesus, 28, showed off his powerful stuff but couldn’t get out of a jam and took the loss.
De Jesus took the loss against the Samsung Lions in the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Monday, allowing four runs on five hits, three walks and one hit batter in 5 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts.
After a leadoff double by Ryu Ji-hyeok put runners on first and second with no outs in the top of the first inning, Heisus struck out Lee Sung-gyu on a wild pitch. However, he gave up an RBI single to Koo Ja-rook to take the lead. He then struck out Byung-ho Park on a wild pitch with the bases loaded and threw out Koo stealing second to end the inning without further damage.
After striking out the side in the second inning, Heisus showed his power in the third inning, striking out Jeon Byung-woo, Kim Jae-hyuk, and Ahn Joo-hyung. In the top of the fourth inning, he gave up an infield single to shortstop, but retired both Byung-ho Park and David McKinnon.
Heisu gave up a leadoff single to Kim Young-woong in the fifth inning. After striking out Kang Min-ho, Heisu walked Jeon Byung-woo and Kim Jae-hyuk, but then walked Ahn Joo-hyung on a wild pitch. He then gave up a two-run double to Lee Sung-gyu. Koo Ja-rook got a fly ball to right field to end the threat.
In the sixth inning, Heisus walked leadoff hitter Park Byung-ho. McKinnon struck him out, but a wild pitch at the plate advanced Byung-ho Park to second and allowed Young-woong Kim to score. With runners on first and second, Heisus was replaced by Cho Sang-woo, who gave up an RBI single to Kang Min-ho to extend Heisus’ lead to four runs. The game ended with a 7-1 win for Samsung, and Heisu suffered his fourth loss of the season.
He threw 91 pitches. His arsenal included a fastball (32 pitches), changeup (24 pitches), two-seam (18 pitches), curve (9 pitches), and slider (8 pitches), and his 토토 fastball topped out at 153 kilometers per hour. He had good command of his pitches, striking out four batters with his fastball alone, but he gave up a lot of runs in clutch situations and couldn’t get the bases loaded.
In a post-game interview, Koo Ja-uk (Samsung), who faced the Heisus, said, “Kiwoom’s ace pitcher came up. We were on a losing streak, so the players were eager to end the losing streak. Both pitchers and fielders played with one mind. We were able to win because (Lee) Seung-hyun pitched better than Hayesus,” he said of the victory over Hayesus.