Should we go to the 5th place match for the first time. SSG is the strongest card, Anderson. But who is the casting boat Kiwoom starter Yoon Seok-won?
Sep 29, 2024
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KT Wiz ended the season with 72 wins, 2 draws and 70 losses as they won the last two games of the season. Now, the final five-team of the 2024 season will be determined by the final result of the SSG Landers' final match on September 30.
The sixth-ranked SSG Landers have 71 wins, two draws and 70 losses. If he wins the final match against the Kiwoom Heroes at home on the 30th, he will be tied with KT. In the past, when the two teams had the same winning rate, they were ranked based on their performance against each other (winning, losing, scoring multiple points). However, when the SK Wyverns and the Doosan Bears tied for first with 88 wins, 1 draw and 55 losses in 2019, Doosan relatively changed the rules after winning the regular league.
Now, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th places are ranked by their performance against each other, but the 1st and 5th places are required to play a separate ranking match.
So, when KT and Samsung tied for first place with 76 wins, 9 draws and 59 losses in 2021, KT won a dramatic 1-0 victory, won the regular league, and even won the Korean Series, winning its first championship. If they ranked in terms of their performance against each other at the time, Samsung, which was ahead with 9 wins, 1 draw and 6 losses, would win the championship.
If SSG wins Kiwoom on the 30th and is tied, KT will be in fifth place if it decides the ranking based on the performance of the showdown. Although the results of the showdown are tied with eight wins and eight losses, KT will be given fifth place with a 92-87 lead in multiple points.
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For SSG, foreign ace Drew Anderson will start. He entered as a substitute this season and pitched in 23 games with a 10-3 record and a 4.07 ERA. The fastball with an average speed limit of more than 150 kilometers is attractive. In 110 ⅔ innings, he struck out as many as 150 strikeouts. If he played the full season, he showed an amazing strikeout ability to the extent that he could become the strikeout king.
He was strong against Kiwoom. Expectations are high because he pitched in four games and was very good with three wins, no losses and an ERA of 2.21.
Kiwoom's starter is left-hander Yoon Suk-won. After graduating from Busan High School, he joined the team as the 36th player in the second round in 2022. He pitched in 21 games for the first time last year, recording two wins and two holds with an ERA of 4.50, and pitched in 10 games this season, recording an ERA of 12.60 without losing or losing. All pitchers in the first team played only as relief, and this is their first start in their debut. Although the restraint is not fast, it is evaluated as having good control. Since he took the mound only as relief, he is likely to play as a bullpen day without throwing many innings.
Initially, the possibility of Enmanuel de Heysus starting was revived. In the KT match, promising players such as Jeon Joon-pyo and Cho Young-gun were put in, but if he took the mound against SSG, it could cause misunderstanding. Perhaps that's why Kiwoom removed Heysus from the first-team entry on the 27th, cutting off the seeds of misunderstanding early.
But the game did its best. KT almost lost to Kiwoom in both games on the 27th and 28th, but won in a sweat. SSG can also get hurt in its nose if it lets its guard down because it is ahead of the starting matchup.
indyk@sportschosun.com
