Phillies news: Ben Lively suffers injury playing in the KBO
A tough bit of Phillies news coming down this weekend for former starter Ben Lively
Former Phillies starting pitcher Ben Lively has been playing in the Korean Baseball Organization this season but unfortunately, he’ll be missing some time after making just three starts.
According to KBO analyst Jin-Hyeok Jang, Lively suffered a ruptured lateral muscle during his start last week.
Other KBO analysts on Twitter note that this was the second consecutive game where Lively left early with an injury. Brian Murphy, who covers Lively’s alma mater UCF for SB Nation, noted that Lively took a ball off his pitching hand in the start before injuring his side.
Murphy added that Lively threw only eight pitches, all fastballs topping out at 94 MPH, before he took himself out of the game with the side injury.
It’s been a rough start for Lively in his first KBO action, boosting a 5.40 ERA in four starts with eight runs allowed in 13.1 innings for the Samsung Lions.
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Lively went to Korea just two years removed from pitching for the Phillies after coming over in the Marlon Byrd deal with Cincinnati. In 20 starts with the Phillies Lively was 4-9 with a 4.81 ERA and 34 walks.
The Phillies waived Lively in September 2018 and he went off to the Royals where he had a fantastic start. In his first five games with Kansas City in 2018 Lively had a 1.35 ERA as a reliever. He got only one appearance with the Royals in 2019 as a reliever allowing three runs off three hits, including a three-run ninth-inning home run to former Phillie Justin Bour when he was with the Angels.
Lively is one of five former Phillies playing in the KBO this season, which includes one of the league’s best hitters Hyun-Soo Kim, who is hitting .379 in his first 16 games. David Buchannan, Lively’s teammate on the Lions, has a 7.50 ERA in three starts.