11 wins, 8 wins, 8 wins, 8 wins, 8 wins. It is the first time in 27 years that four pitchers with 10 wins will be produced. It's necessary for the second place, too
Sep 03, 2024
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While foreign pitcher Detrick N.S. has 11 wins, domestic starters Lim Chan-kyu and Choi Won-tae and Son Joo-young have eight wins each, so if they raise two wins in the remaining appearances, they will become a 10-win pitcher.
LG produced more than four 10-win pitchers only twice, including during the MBC Blue Dragon era. In 1994, when Sanghoon Lee won the integrated championship, Kim Tae-won won 16, Jeong Sam-heum won 15, and In Hyun-bae won 10, producing four 10-win pitchers for the first time, and in 1997, four other 10-win pitchers, including Kim Yong-soo (12 wins), Lim Sun-dong (11 wins), Cha Myung-seok (11 wins), and Sanghoon Lee (10 wins), came out.
Since then, he has not produced four pitchers with 10 wins. With the recent rise to a strong team, three pitchers with 10 wins have steadily come out. Since 2019, when Casey Kelly, who became a LG foreign legend, came, three 10-win pitchers have come out in the four years until last year, except for 2021. Last year's selection, which won the first combined championship in 29 years, was unstable, but three players, Lim Chan-kyu (14 wins), Adam Plutko (11 wins), and Kelly (10 wins), took the double-digit victory.
There was an expectation that it could produce four people this year. This is because he expected more than 10 wins from steady Kelly and new Ence, and there were Choi Won-tae, who was with him from the start of the season, and Lim Chan-kyu, who took a career high last year. If there were strong bullpens and powerful hits like last year, expectations were high that there would be more opportunities to become a winning pitcher if the starter stopped more than five innings.
But it wasn't easy. Kelly and Ens showed ups and downs, and Choi Won-tae and Lim Chan-kyu were injured during the season. Son Joo-young, who challenged his first full-time selection as a fifth starter, steadily showed stability and emerged as a 'hit product'. Even if the starter meets the requirements for a winning pitcher, there are cases where the unstable bullpen cannot keep it. There were many difficult games as the lineup did not explode as much as last year.
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Ens scored 12 times, Kelly 11 times, Choi Won-tae and Son Joo-young nine times, and Lim Chan-kyu recorded eight quality starts. The new Elijah Hernandez also scored once.
LG has 20 more games to go. Five starters are expected to be given about four chances to take the mound. For the three domestic starters, 10 wins mean a lot.
Lim Chan-kyu has recorded three double-digit wins (2018, 2020, 2023) so far, but has never recorded 10 wins in two consecutive years. If he wins 10 games this year and achieves double-digit wins for the second consecutive year, he will be recognized as a steady starter.
Choi Won-tae is also trying to win 10 games in five years after winning 11 games in 2019. He won nine games in 2021 and last year. As he becomes an FA at the end of this season, 10 wins can be big.
Son Joo-young was the first starter this year, and if she wins 10 games, she will be a huge success. The left-handed pitcher raised by LG for the first time in 14 years since Bong Jung-geun in 2010 has won 10 games.
For LG, which is aiming to go straight to the playoffs as second place, the possibility of winning increases only when the starters pitch well. Their victory will soon be directly linked to LG's second place. Reaching 10 wins by four starting pitchers has become an important number for individuals and teams.
indyk@sportschosun.com
