<Anchor> In
professional baseball this season, the strike zone is getting wider.
Yesterday (22nd), in KIA's self-evaluation match, the changed strike zone was applied for the first time.
The players were surprised, but reporter Yoo Byung-min reported on the spot.
<Reporter>
The coaching staff is calling on the KIA players who are the first to start the self-evaluation match among the 10 teams.
[Lee Beom-ho/KIA Coach: Personally, check how far the referees give strikes.
We'll check it out too.]
Unlike the past evaluation games where young referees were put in, veteran referees Seung-Hoon Moon and Su-Won Choi took turns as referees and applied the changed strike zone for the first time.
As the game started, as expected, both the pitcher and the batter were unfamiliar with the widened strike zone.
When the outside ball, which would have been a ball in the past, was judged to be strikes one after another, Ko Jong-wook sighed, and Kim Ho-ryung was struck out while watching.
The seven-inning game was over in two hours as the batters actively turned their bats.
As it widened to the left and right widths as well as above the predicted strike zone, pitchers welcomed it, and batters were crying.
[Han Seung-hyuk / KIA Pitcher: It seems to have expanded from half to one.
It is expected that batters will come out aggressively, and I think it will give me a lot of advantage.]
[Hwang Dae-in/KIA Infielder: It seems that the mentality is likely to shake a lot, but if you catch that part well, it will not affect the next at-bat.] The
players reacted sensitively to the changed strike zone, predicting a big wave.