The home run king's fastball of 138 kilometers. I almost missed it. Davidson's Pitcher Debut as Revealed by Hoduji
Aug 26, 2025
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In the Lotte-NC match held in Changwon on the 24th, Matt Davidson, a foreign hitter, took the mound as a pitcher in the top of the ninth inning, making headlines.
Lotte led 17-4 in the top of the ninth inning. After two outs, Kim Min-kyu walked Jang Doo-sung and replaced the pitcher at Hwang Sung-bin's at-bat. With the game already in play, it was a puzzle that it was a replacement after two outs, but Davison, who was defending at first base, came up to the mound and applauded both NC home fans and Lotte away fans.
Davison surprised fans by throwing a 138km fastball on the first pitch against Hwang Sung-bin, and finished the inning with a 137km fastball to center field.
The behind-the-scenes story of Davison's appearance was a little complicated. Even though it was two outs later, Davison was a measure to protect pitcher Kim Min-kyu, not for the fans to see.
NC manager Lee Ho-joon said of Davison's pitching against Lotte against the LG Twins in Changwon on the 26th, "At first, I tried to raise Davison right away in the top of the ninth inning, but I put him up after the pitchers' pitches were full. Choi Woo-suk and Kim Min-kyu were pitchers who didn't have many pitches in the second division, so they couldn't make him throw 40 pitches even without pitchers to throw. So I wanted to prepare the fielder as a pitcher, but Davison said he would throw it. So I prepared the pitchers to raise the pitch if the number of pitches goes over" he said.
Choi Woo-seok once threw 48 pitches against Changwon LG on March 29, but since then, he has recorded 30 pitches against Goyang on April 13 and Lotte on June 19 in the Futures League. He threw 35 in two innings on Monday.
In the Futures League, Kim Min-kyu threw 29 pitches against Samsung on August 20, and 16 pitches were the most in the first team.
Davison almost didn't make his pitching debut. Kim Min-kyu, who got up in the top of the ninth inning, caught Jung Hoon with a fly to right field and Lee Ho-joon with a ground ball in front of the second base at the first pitch. Until now, Kim Min-gyu had 24 pitches. Director Lee caught Lee Ho-joon at the first pitch and let Kim Min-kyu finish the ninth inning. But he gave up a walk, and the number of pitches reached the limit, so he put Davison up.' Kim Min-gyu gave up a walk with Jang Doo-sung after five pitches, reaching 29 pitches this season.
Davidson, who took the mound dramatically, handled Hwang Sung-bin with two balls and ended his KBO League pitching debut. Manager Lee said "I turned my arm around looking at me to see if I wanted to throw it, but usually if there's a big difference in points, I kept the first baseman on purpose to send the pitcher out" and "I was excited to go out as a pitcher. My face looked better than when I hit the bat" with a chuckle. If there is no pitcher to throw next time when we are losing by a big margin, I think we can see Davison.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
