New ace for Giants thriving in raucous atmosphere in KBO

Before making his Korean league debut May 27, Lotte Giants left-hander Alec Gamboa had no idea what he would be in for. The 28-year-old American had signed with the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) club earlier that month to replace Charlie Barnes in the Giants' rotation. Unlike most other foreign players who make their way here, Gamboa had not played in Major League Baseball (MLB) before taking his talent to Korea. A ninth-round selection by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2019 MLB draft, Gamboa first reached Triple-A in 2023, but a call-up from the big league club never came. So Gamboa had not been accustomed to pitching in front of big crowds when he stepped on the rubber against the Samsung Lions that day, with a sellout crowd of 24,000 at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, about 235 kilometers southeast of Seoul. "I'd never pitched in anything like that. I'd never made my big league debut, so I was always in the minor leagues, and the minor leagues don't get too many fans," Gamboa told Yonhap News Agency on Wednesday before the Giants played the Kiwoom Heroes at Gocheok Sky Dome inWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Korea Times