Twins' Lachlan Wells handily wins showdown of Asian quota pitchers in 3-0 win over Eagles

LG Twins starter Lachlan Wells won a showdown between two Asian quota pitchers in a 3-0 victory over the Hanwha Eagles at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Songpa District, southern Seoul, on Wednesday. 

Hanwha managed just one hit and one walk against Wells as the LG Twins extended its winning streak to three games.

The game had been billed as a meeting between two of the standout performers under the KBO's newly introduced Asian quota system. Wells hails from Australia and Hanhwa Eagles' Wang Yan-Cheng is from Taiwan.

Wells, however, took control from the start, throwing eight scoreless innings while Wang allowed three runs over five. Wells retired the side in order in seven of his eight innings, turning in an ace-like outing to dominate the matchup.

The new Asian quota system introduced to the KBO this year allows each club to carry one additional player from an Asian Baseball Federation member country or Australia, regardless of position, in addition to the existing foreign-player system. This allows teams to now have four overseas players in total, including the Asian quota player. 

The only time Wells ran into trouble came in the top of the fourth. After one out, he gave up a single to Yonathan Perlaza and then issued a four-pitch walk to Moon Hyun-bin to put runners on first and second. He got Kang Baek-ho to fly out to left, then escaped when catcher Park Dong-won picked off Moon at first on the first pitch of Chae Eun-seong’s at-bat to end the inning scoreless.

Wells then retired the side in order again in each of the fifth through eighth innings. He struck out all three batters in the eighth and walked off to a thunderous ovation. He had thrown only 84 pitches through eight innings and looked capable of finishing what would have been a complete-game shutout, but LG manager Youm Kyoung-youb said he chose not to push him.

“It was more important not to overwork him than to chase a shutout,” Youm said after the game. “The season is still long and there are many games left.”

The Twins broke the deadlock in the bottom of the second when Song Chan-eui hit a two-run homer off Wang for his first home run of the season. Moon Sung-ju added an RBI single in the fifth. Closer You Young-chan took the mound in the ninth with LG ahead 3-0 and recorded a perfect save. After becoming the fastest pitcher in KBO history to reach 10 saves a day earlier, he picked up his 11th on Wednesday to widen his lead.

“Park Dong-won did a great job mixing all of Wells’ pitches,” Yeom said. “Wells gave us his best outing of the season with aggressive pitching, and that led to the win. I hope Song Chan-eui can gain confidence from this game and use it as a chance to take another step forward.”

Elsewhere, the Kiwoom Heroes beat the NC Dinos 3-0 at home in Gocheok Dome, western Seoul, for their first three-game winning streak of the season, behind eight scoreless innings from Raul Alcantara. In Daegu, the SSG Landers scored two runs in the top of the ninth to beat the Samsung Lions 3-2. The fourth-place Landers secured a winning series in the midweek set and cut their gap behind the third-place Lions to half a game. Samsung has now lost three straight. The Doosan Bears landed in sixth place after winning four straight games. 

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

BY BAE YOUNG-EUN [[email protected]]