No more nightmares about the Battle of June 25! The strongest ace for two years has faced each other five times → A terrible jinx against KIA. Escape after 4 games and 5 games

Jul 28, 2025

No more nightmares about the Battle of June 25! The strongest ace for two years has faced each other five times → A terrible jinx against KIA. Escape after 4 games and 5 games
Na Gyun-an for the interview. Reporter Kim Young-rok



No more nightmares about the Battle of June 25! The strongest ace for two years has faced each other five times → A terrible jinx against KIA. Escape after 4 games and 5 games
The match between KIA and Lotte at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 27th. In the top of the fifth inning, Na Kyun-an is cheering after catching Ko Jong-wook with a double play. Busan = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.27/
No more nightmares about the Battle of June 25! The strongest ace for two years has faced each other five times → A terrible jinx against KIA. Escape after 4 games and 5 games
The match between KIA and Lotte at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 27th. Na Kyun-an, who pitched well with two runs until the sixth inning. Busan = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.27/
He often encounters a pitcher. But the player is the best ace in the league.

Lotte Giants' Na Kyun-an said goodbye to his long bad relationship with the KIA Tigers. Lotte won a tough 5-3 victory against KIA in Busan on the 27th after a bloody battle.

On this day, Na Kyun-an pitched well with two runs in six innings, but failed to become a winning pitcher. This is because James Nail, his opponent, also pitched hard with two runs in six innings.




In 2021, since Na Kyun-an changed from catcher to pitcher and played in the first-team game, her performance against KIA has been 59 ⅔ innings in 18 games (starting 12), 0-7-1 with a 7.69 ERA. He was sluggish in the match against KIA, and strangely, he didn't follow luck.

In the game Na Kyun-an took the mound during the same period, his team Lotte's performance was also 4 wins, 1 draw and 13 losses. Although Na Kyun-an was generally sluggish, some games did not win even though he started well.

In addition, the fact that Na Kyun-an has met the worst bad relationship since last year also contributed. He is the league's best pitcher, Nail, who ranked No. 1 in ERA last year.




No more nightmares about the Battle of June 25! The strongest ace for two years has faced each other five times → A terrible jinx against KIA. Escape after 4 games and 5 games
The match between KIA and Lotte at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 27th. Nail took the mound as a starting pitcher for KIA. Busan = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.27/
The two met strangely often. It was the second time last year and the third time this year.

Na Kyun-an and Nail are the starting matchups for the Lotte-KIA 6.25 Battle, one of last year's top-rated matches. At that time, Lotte trailed to 1-14 at the beginning of the game, with Na Kyun-an collapsing to 8 runs in 1 ⅔ inning, but the game was overturned 15-14 due to a fierce chase in the middle and second half of the game, and it ended in a 15-15 draw after extra time.

On March 27, when the two faced each other for the first time, Na Kyun-an allowed six runs (three earned runs) in five innings and Nail allowed one run in six innings, losing the team 2-8.




In the game on April 9 this year, Na Kyun-an pitched well with two runs in five ⅓ innings, but Lotte's batters lost 1-3 to Nail after being tied to one run in seven innings. On July 4, Na Kyun-an also showed his best pitching against KIA with two runs (one earned run) in six innings, but Nail blocked Lotte's batting line with two runs in six innings, and Lotte lost 5-7.

No more nightmares about the Battle of June 25! The strongest ace for two years has faced each other five times → A terrible jinx against KIA. Escape after 4 games and 5 games
The match between KIA and Lotte at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 27th. In the top of the fifth inning, Na Kyun-an is cheering after catching Ko Jong-wook with a double play. Busan = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.27/
The match on the 27th was the fifth face-off between the two. With Lotte's victory on this day, Na Kyun-an was able to finally engrave one win in the grand nail match against the team, which had 1 draw and 3 losses before the game.

Na Kyun-an's individual winning pitcher against KIA should promise his next opportunity. Still, it is meaningful just that he won a valuable victory over nails.

Na Kyun-an, who met after the game, smiled brightly at repeated encounters with nail, saying, `I feel rather comfortable when I face a foreign pitcher.'

"When you face a foreign pitcher, you throw it with more concentration and responsibility. I don't feel too much pressure, I focus on myself."

Seung-woon is not following well this season as head coach Kim Tae-hyung repeatedly says 'I'm sorry for Na Gyun-an'. He has played 97 ⅔ innings in 20 games (18 starts) this year with a 4.33 ERA, but has only two wins (6 losses).

Na Kyun-an said, `It's not a good thing that the multipliers don't accumulate.' `I don't really care. Our team has a really clear goal of this year's fall baseball, and we threw well at a time when we were desperate for one win and one win like today, and we are satisfied enough that the team won."

No more nightmares about the Battle of June 25! The strongest ace for two years has faced each other five times → A terrible jinx against KIA. Escape after 4 games and 5 games
The match between KIA and Lotte at Sajik Stadium in Busan on the 27th. Na Kyun-an, who pitched well with two runs until the sixth inning, is smiling broadly. Busan = Reporter Jeong Jae-geun cjg@sportschosun.com /2025.7.27/
At one point, head coach Kim Tae-hyung knocked on the possibility of Na Kyun-an's must-win team. Now Hong Min-ki has appeared, but the head coach's intention is that there should be four players who will form a must-win group with Jung Chul-won and Choi Jun-yong.

In the end, he returned to the starting line-up after judging that the selection was not appropriate, and his pace has risen sharply since then. He has pitched more than five innings in the last six consecutive games, including four quality starts (more than six innings and less than three earned runs).

"It's not that I care about it particularly, but it's good to have a chance to start again. I want to prepare well as the director wants and produce good results in the future."





This article was translated by Naver AI translator.