Mario Sanchez (29), a new KIA foreign pitcher, is having difficulties adapting to the KBO league unexpectedly.
Sanchez made headlines with his unique pitching form against Suwon KT on July 9, his first game after joining the KIA. KT coach Lee Kang-cheol 꽁머니사이트 protested against the double kicking motion during pitching and the fake motion when checking runners, but at the time, the referees pointed out that the double kicking was “a balk in case of recurrence” and proceeded with the game as if there was no problem with the fake check motion. . Sanchez earned his first win right away with a good pitch with 5 hits, 10 strikeouts and 1 run in 6.1 innings.
Sanchez did not do the double kick that was pointed out by the referee in the first game. However, the fake action that was not pointed out continued.
When a runner goes to first base, Sanchez suddenly bends his knees and turns his back to the left to look at him. There are times when you check right away in that state, there are times when you look at the batter again without checking and then suddenly turn your back to check them again, and there are times when you hold the set position again and check properly. First of all, the point is that the runner is startled by the motion of suddenly looking back and finds it difficult to move.
At the time of the first victory, Sanchez said, “I saw my teammates in Taiwan and tried it, and I was able to catch the checker right away. We have been doing this ever since.” It’s your own ‘routine’.
However, since then, the referees have continued to point out the check action. Its contents are different.
After the first appearance, on July 11, when Samsung started the last three games in the first half, Park Jong-cheol, team leader of the referee group, visited KIA and warned Sanchez about his check action. It was said that it would be okay to make a fake motion while looking at the sign while facing the batter with the shoulders open to the runner, but if you turn your back away from the runner on first base and keep your shoulders completely closed, it would be a balk. The focus seems to be on whether the runner can look at the pitcher’s shoulder and prepare for the move.
Sanchez’s 2nd and 3rd appearances, which started in the second half, did not make any special comments, but a warning came out again in the game against Samsung in Pohang on the 1st, which was the 4th appearance. This time, it was team leader Choi Su-won, who passed Sanchez’s debut game without any problems despite the opponent’s protest. After the fake action, if you hold the set position again and do a normal check, it will be recognized as a normal play, but if you check the fake action, you will give a balk. It can be understood as meaning that all checks following the fake action are acts of deceit unless the set position is properly performed again. It is different from what Team Leader Park Jong-cheol delivered earlier.
However, in the match against Hanwha in Gwangju on the 6th, the same movement that was warned by team leader Choi Su-won in the match against Samsung on the 1st came out. In the beginning of the 2nd inning, Choi Jae-hoon, 2nd out, 1st base, made a fake move at bat and unconsciously checked without a set position, but a balk was not declared. Then Sanchez came to chaos. The match was run by team leader Park Jong-cheol. Immediately after the situation, the referees gathered and talked.
It seems that the referees were not completely organized about the interpretation or there was a problem with the delivery process, perhaps because it was a very unique move that was first seen in the KBO league. However, if there is a possibility to see it as an act of deceit, it should have already been given a small warning in the first game, in which manager Lee Kang-cheol even protested. If it was necessary to correct it afterwards, it should have been quickly sorted out, but whether Sanchez’s check action was an act of deception has not been sorted out for a month.
Sanchez is wandering, perhaps because his pitching motion, which became a routine for runners on base, has been constantly criticized for different content. In terms of performance, he was unable to throw 5 innings in a row in the last 2 out of 5 games and resigned.
KIA general manager Shim Jae-hak, who had an interview with Sanchez, said, “I made the corrections as I heard, but if I heard another story and did the action, I should give a balk, but I didn’t give it, so the player seems to be in great confusion. Since you keep talking about it, he has to fight the hitter, but it seems to have come to a situation where he is fighting his own pitching motion. I think the referees need to sort out this motion itself uniformly at once,” he said.
