Back from injury layoff, Twins pitcher hopes to stay healthy for rest of KBO season

After winning his final start of the season's first half Thursday, LG Twins starter Im Chan-kyu said he doesn't have any statistical goal for the remainder of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) campaign. Im, who missed nearly a month earlier in the season with a lower back injury, said he wants to stay on the field. "I don't want to miss any turn in the rotation," Im said following the Twins' 3-2 win over the Kiwoom Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. He limited the opponents to a run on four hits in six innings, while striking out four. "I want to be a cornerstone for the pitching staff and keep giving the team a lead before the bullpen takes over." Im had a disappointing 6.39 ERA at the end of April with a 0-3 record, a far cry from 2023 when he established career highs with 14 wins and a 3.42 ERA and helped the Twins capture their first Korean Series title in 29 years. The 31-year-old has been a completely different pitcher since the start of May, though. He went 3-0 in five starts in May with a 2. 51 ERA. A lower back injury knocked him out of action for most of June, but Im returned with a bang on June 23, when he limited the KT Wiz to a run on three hits in five innings and struck out eight. Then came Thursday's outing, in which he mixed in four-seam fastballs, curveballs and changeups to great effect. He is now 5-3 with a 4.08 ERA. The Twins had a short offseason after their title run ended in mid-November last year but Im said it didn't have any bearing on his sluggish start to this season. He said he needed some time to adjust to the automated ball-strike system, implemented in the KBO for the first time this year. Colloquially called the robot umpire, the new system uses tracking technology to determine balls and strikes and relays calls to the home plate umpire through an earpiece. The accuracy and consistency of the system at different ballparks has come into question throughout the season, and Im said he had to figure out quickly how to attack the new strike zone. Im also thanked his bullp en and defense behind him for their help in preserving Thursday's win, with closer You Young-chan notably collecting a five-out save and surviving a bases-loaded jam in the eighth. Im is far from the only significant player to suffer injuries for the Twins this season, and he called on the rest of the team to be more vigilant in taking care of their bodies. "I think we all have to be responsible as far as avoiding injuries," he said. "We've had a couple of injuries in the starting rotation. Hopefully, when everyone is back in the second half, we will compensate for the time that we've missed earlier in the year." With Thursday's win, the Twins ended the first half in second place at 46-38-2 (wins-losses-ties), 3.5 games behind the Kia Tigers. Prior to the game, Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb said he felt his team would be able to push the Tigers harder once all the injured players are back. Asked how he thought the Twins would do with everyone in the mix, Im smiled and said, "I have no idea. Only God know s that." Source: Yonhap News Agency