SSG Landers closer Seo Jin-yong (30) made his first blown save of the season against the Doosan Bears in Jamsil on April 27.Entering the ninth inning with a 5-4 lead, Seo put runners on the corners with two singles and then gave up a sacrifice fly to Jose Rojas to blow the lead for the first time in his 51st regular-season appearance and 35th save situation.In the top of the 10th, SSG scored three runs to take an 8-5 lead, and he remained on the mound in the bottom of the 10th, holding the Doosan bats without allowing another run to secure the 8-5 victory and his third win of an embarrassing season.After serving primarily as a bullpen setup man since his rookie year, he moved to the closer’s role last year.He became the first KBO pitcher to reach the 30-save plateau with a save against the Changwon NC Dinos on Sept. 9, and has since protected four more team victories to reach 34 saves.He had one setback against Doosan on the 27th, but he still has an outstanding record of 3-2 with 34 saves and a 1.52 ERA.He’s saved 10 more team wins than the league’s second-leading saves leader, Kim Jae-yoon (KT WIZ-24), so barring any changes, he’s on pace to win his first career save title.In fact, Seo had a hunch that his “zero blown saves” streak would end at some point.He told Yonhap News Agency ahead of the game on Sunday, “Even a really good closer can’t have a blown save. Even if I’m still pitching well, it’s a record that will be broken one day.”As Seo said, blown saves are a fate for closers.Even Oh Seung-hwan (Samsung Lions), who tied the KBO single-season record for saves with 47 in 2011, had one blown save.All closers learn from their failures.Seo Jin-yong is no different.He had four blown saves in 21 appearances last season. His save percentage was 84%.”I think I grew by getting hit a lot and failing a lot,” he says. When I’m in trouble, I think, ‘I’ve been hit a lot, I’ve failed a lot, where can I go from here,’ so I go in stronger.”Seo now needs two more saves to match Ha Jae-hoon’s single-season record of 36 set in 2019.Jae-hoon, who has since switched to the batter’s box due to injury, told reporters after the game against Doosan in Jamsil on April 26, “I will set more records as a batter, so I want you to break my save record.””I will break Jae-hoon’s record,” Seo said, adding, “If I get the most saves for the team, it means the team is doing well. And even if I set a club record this season, if someone breaks it, I will be happy because it means the team is doing well.”In the history of the KBO, 40 saves in a single season has only been accomplished eight times.Oh Seung-hwan has done it four times, while Son Seung-rak (former Lotte Giants), Ko Woo-seok (LG Twins), Jung Myung-won (Hyundai Unicorns), and Jin Pil-joong (LG Twins) have done it once each.Seo Jin-yong said, “I told myself that I would announce my seasonal save goal when I reached 30 saves. Now that I’ve already passed 30, I want to challenge for 40,” Seo said, adding, “If I’m even more ambitious, I want to set the KBO single-season record for most saves (Oh Seung-hwan’s 온라인카지노 47).”
