Baseball's Kiwoom Heroes' Lee Kang-jun (23) thrilled fans at the Futures All-Star Game with his incredible fastball.

Lee, who was selected to the Southern All-Star team, pitched one inning of one-hit, one-strikeout baseball in relief for the Futures All-Star Game of the 2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on May 5.

Lee, who took the mound in the bottom of the ninth inning with the Southern All-Stars leading 9-5, got leadoff hitter Yeo Dong-gun to pop out to shortstop and Jung Ahn-seok to fly out to second base for the second out of the inning. Song Ji-hoo induced a wild pitch, but the ball sailed past the first baseman for a double. Jeon Damin was then walked to put runners on first and second.

In the sudden crisis, Lee faced Ham Chang-geon, who had been hitting well on the day with a multi-hit game including a home run, but the ball didn't clear the center field fence and was caught by the center fielder to end the game. Lee, who threw 17 pitches, thrilled the fans with a fastball that reached over 150 kilometers per hour. His fastball was clocked at 158 kilometers per hour on the stadium scoreboard.

Drafted by KT in the third round (22nd overall) of the second round of the 2020 Korean Rookie Draft, Lee unintentionally bounced around a lot of teams. He was traded to Lotte in the 2021 season, and in January 2023, he was named a free agent compensation player for Han Hyun-hee (Lotte) and donned a Kiwoom uniform. Lee, 바카라사이트 추천 who was scheduled to join the Sangmu, joined the Sangmu in May last year as scheduled.

After posting an ERA of 18.00 in two games (2 innings) last year, Lee was desperate and prepared for the new season. As a result, he finished the first half of the season with an overwhelming performance of 2 wins, 8 holds, 4 saves, and an ERA of 0.61 in 26 games (29⅔ innings).

In a pregame interview, Lee said, "It's my second Futures All-Star Game after coming in 2022, and I think it's fun. It's fun to play baseball in front of so many people after always playing with the squad and playing with the second team. I'm not used to it yet, but I'll have to get used to it quickly," he said about playing in the Futures All-Star Game.

Lee, who joined the commercial team as soon as he moved to Kiwoom, hasn't met many of his Kiwoom teammates yet. He met Kim Yeon-ju, Yoon Seok-won, Song Ji-hoo, Lee Seung-won, and Lee Kang-jun at the Futures All-Star Game and said, "We shot a YouTube video together earlier. But as soon as I joined the team, I went to the army, so I wasn't close to them yet, so it was a little awkward," he laughed. He continued, "I'm definitely watching the Kiwoom game. I saw that their winning streak was unfortunately broken yesterday," he added.

"My goal when I came to Sangmu was to catch pitches and throw consistently," Lee said. "I think the biggest thing is to live a regular life. I can't eat when I don't want to because I have to eat at that time. Even if I don't want to eat, I have to eat, so I think it was easy to grow my body. The weight training facility is also good, so it's much better than outside. So far, it seems to be going according to plan, so I'm happy with it."

"I've mastered my changeup, but my problem is that it's too fast like a fastball. And I'm worried about it going in like a fastball. I was thinking about what to do, but (Bae) Sung-hyung Je told me about it, so I tried it and it seems to be a little faster. I'm throwing it in games now and it's not 100 percent, but I think if I keep throwing it in the second half of the season and practice again in the winter, I'll be able to use it at 100 percent next year."

"Now that I have the second half of the season left, I want to maintain it well so that I can finish the season well and prepare for a good showing at the Gocheok Dome next year," said Lee, who will return to Kiwoom next year.