Twins starter Enns 'ready' to pitch in relief in KBO postseason game

DAEGU, Oct. 15 (Yonhap) -- After pitching the entire regular season and his first two games of the postseason as a starter, LG Twins left-hander Dietrich Enns said Tuesday he will be "ready" to pitch in relief Tuesday.

The Twins will face the Samsung Lions in Game 2 of the best-of-five series in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason Tuesday evening at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, 235 kilometers southeast of Seoul. It was scheduled to have been played Monday but was pushed back due to rain.

With that postponement, the Twins altered their plans to start Enns for Game 3 on Wednesday on six days' rest. He is now expected to start Game 4 on Friday.

Meanwhile, with another day of rest scheduled Wednesday, the Twins will ask Enns to cover up middle innings Tuesday if necessary.

It's an illustration of the state of the Twins' bullpen, which is no longer the team's strength that it had been during their run to the Korean Series title last year.

In the previous series, Twins manager Youm Kyoung-youb relied on two starters, Son Ju-young and Elieser Hernandez, to eat up multiple innings out of the bullpen. Son has rejoined the rotation for this series, and Enns will take on Son's role, at least for Tuesday.

"I'll be ready when my name gets called," Enn said. "When we talked about it yesterday, I was all for it. So coming out of the bullpen today is something that I'm happy to do. And then, whether I pitch or don't pitch, (I will) just get ready for Game 4 on Friday.

Enns had a 3.00 ERA in two regular-season starts against the Lions but did not face them at Daegu Samsung Lions Park, the hitter-friendly bandbox that yielded a league-high 216 homers in 71 games this year.

Enns said he wasn't concerned about where he pitches, because his focus on executing pitches won't change.

"It's smaller for sure, but you just got to go out there and pitch your game and execute pitches," the American pitcher said. "If you make mistakes anywhere, good hitters are going to hit home runs. So it's all about just making good quality pitches and not letting their good hitters do damage."

Enns made two starts against the KT Wiz in the previous postseason round but surrendered seven earned runs on 11 hits, including two homers, in 8 2/3 innings. It wasn't the type of performance that the Twins expected from their No. 1 starter, but Enns said that series was already in the past.

"You have to just flush it, forget about it and move on to the next one," he said. "Whether you have a good or bad outing, just continue to move forward, learn from it and move on. That's all you can do in baseball because you got a game the next day, and we're fortunate enough to still be playing so we still got an opportunity. So I'm just thankful for another opportunity to go out there and pitch."

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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