KIA Tigers' Lim Ki-young took the mound in a practice game against KT Wiz on the 3rd and scored a passing point by pitching one scoreless inning.

Lim took the mound in the top of the seventh inning when his team was leading 6-1. Lim matched Chun Sung-ho and Jang Joon-won with fly balls to center field and fly balls to right field, respectively, and pitched eight pitches and one strikeout in one inning, before going down the mound.안전놀이터

KT created a chance to score in the eighth and ninth innings when the leadoff hitter hit a double, but the follow-up hit did not lead to a score and the game ended with a 6-1 KIA victory.

Lim took the mound for the second time in a practice game for this spring camp. In his last game against the Hanwha Eagles on Feb. 25, he took the mound in the top of the seventh inning, allowing four hits and one run in one inning. In his first game, his maximum speed of fastball and change-up was 140 kilometers per hour and 128 kilometers per hour, and in this game, his speed slightly decreased to 139 kilometers per hour and 125 kilometers per hour.

Lim has had ups and downs in returning to the team this off-season when he became a free agent. Having played as the league's top bullpen session with four wins, four losses and three saves with 16 holds and an earned run average of 2.96 in 64 games and 82 innings in the 2023 season, Lim failed to take the mound in the first team for two months due to an internal oblique muscle injury early last season.

After rehabilitation, he was deployed to fill the gap between foreign pitchers Will Crow and Young-gun Lee Eui-ri, who were in the starting rotation at the time. Lim Ki-young's earned run average (ERA) soared to 6.75 in June after leaving the starting lineup without a fixed position immediately after returning from injury.

Lim Ki-young, who returned to the bullpen, repeated his inconsistent pitching until the end of the season, achieving a disappointing result of 6 wins, 2 losses and a 6.31 ERA in 37 regular season games. Lim Ki-young, who failed to fully recover his ball power until the end of the regular season, also suffered the humiliation of not being included in the 2024 Korean Series entry, despite his past experience in starting the Korean Series.

Nevertheless, Lim, who ambitiously entered the FA market, did not receive much attention from other teams due to his heavy burden of compensation and risk of injury due to his "B-grade" status as an FA. Finally, he signed a three-year contract worth 1.5 billion won (1.5 million U.S. dollars) with Kia, his original team, on Dec. 21, four days before Christmas.

Lim's preparations for the upcoming season seem to be going smoothly. In the 2023 season, when his record was the best, his four-core speed was 137.2 kilometers per hour and his change-up average speed was 128.9 kilometers per hour, falling to 134.3 kilometers per hour and 126.9 kilometers per hour last year. During the spring camp, he already exceeded his speed last year. Given that there are still exhibition games to be played, Lim seems to be recovering his ball power smoothly.