“There is still a lot of season left.”

Anthony Alford (29), an outfielder for the kt Wiz, emphasized that the team that was sluggish this season will definitely rebound.안전놀이터

Alford started as the sixth hitter and left fielder in the match against the Doosan Bears in the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ held at Suwon KT Wiz Park on the 19th.

Alford’s bat has been cold lately. In May, he had a batting average of 0.135 (5 hits in 37 at-bats), 1 home run, 3 RBIs, and an OPS of 0.463 in 11 games, and he was not easily out of the slump. His batting order was also lowered to No. 6, away from No. 3, which he usually started.

Alford, who had been stagnant, showed signs of rebounding that day. In the bottom of the 4th inning, when the game was tight 1-1, he hit Seung-yong Choi’s curve at second base safely and hit a 2-run home run (No. 5 of the season) that went over the left fence and scored 3-1. Continuing the momentum, in the bottom of the 5th inning, when the team was ahead 4-1, with 2 outs on 1st and 2nd base, pitcher Park Jeong-soo’s curve was changed and one RBI was hit at the right time to make it 5-1.

The final result was 4 at-bats, 2 hits (1 home run), 3 RBIs and 1 run. He played a big role by hitting the final four and timely hits. The team also won 6-1 thanks to Alford’s performance.

▲ Alford contributed to the team’s victory by hitting the final shot and a timely hit on this day after a slump in May. ⓒkt Wiz

Alford, who we met after the game, said, “The whole team helped a lot to break the losing streak. Eom Sang-baek blocked it well with 1 run in 5 innings, and the hitters gave a lot of strength is a factor in winning.”

Recently, kt has been in a slump. They are at the bottom of the league with 11 wins, 2 draws and 24 losses. At the beginning of the season, a number of key players who were supposed to be the main players left due to large and small injuries. The mound also failed to show stable performance with ups and downs.

There were many days where the losing streak was prolonged, and last month, I had a difficult season in many ways, such as falling into a 9-game losing streak. However, Alford predicted that the team would definitely rebound, citing the example of last year. In June of last year, kt fell to 8th place, but advanced to the postseason by raising the ranking to 4th place in the league.

Alford explained, “There is still a lot of season left.” .

He added, “There were many injured players, but in a game that could have been won, we made the game difficult with small things such as a pitch and a swing. In the future, if we focus on supplementing those parts, we will be able to win many games.

▲ Will Alford be able to rebound and laugh with the team? ⓒReporter Kwak Hye-mi

Together with the team, he prepared an opportunity for a rebound personally. Alford showed league-leading offensive productivity with 0.368 (32 hits in 87 at-bats), 3 homers, 10 RBIs, and an OPS (on-base percentage + slugging percentage) of 1.002 in April. He said May was sluggish, but could be different.

Alford said, “Baseball has good times and bad times. I think showing improvement day by day is the way to quickly escape the slump. With those thoughts, I try to do well every day to escape the slump.”

Continuing, “Being the 6th hitter, I didn’t put a lot of pressure on it. Watching the pitchers play against the right-handed hitter in front of me is a plus factor for getting tips. I always deal with the pitcher in the same way, so the 6th batting order isn’t too much of a burden. I don’t,” he said forcefully.