'A big game is definitely the first point...' WC 1st and 2nd round, semi PO 1st round. I won when I got the first point. Who started the second round?
Oct 06, 2024
|
|
|
In this year's postseason, the importance of the first point is growing as the first point is linked to victory.
KT Wiz scored the first point in both the two wild-card games and the first round of the semi-playoff and secured the victory by keeping it.
In the first game of the wild card game against the Doosan Bears on the 2nd, Jang Sung-woo's final hit and hit Doosan starter Kwak Bin to score four runs in the top of the first inning alone, and although he failed to score an additional point after that, he won 4-0 with the perfect defense of the bullpen, which led to starter William Cuevas' six scoreless innings and Kim Min, Son Dong-hyun and Park Young-hyun. Doosan also put in Balazovic from the second inning, blocking KT's batters without losing a point afterwards, but failed to target KT's mound in the end.
The same goes for Game 2. KT's starter Wes Benjamin showed his best pitching with three hits and no runs in seven innings. And Rojas' double created a chance and Kang Baek-ho's hit scored a valuable first and final point. Ko Young-pyo blocked the eighth inning and Park Young-hyun blocked the ninth inning, a huge 1-0 victory.
Doosan also blocked starter Choi Seung-yong and Lee Young-ha and Lee Byung-hun and Kim Kang-ryul with just one run in the seventh inning by putting Kim Taek-yeon in, but the batters were eventually blocked by KT's mound again and lost.
In the first round of the semi-PO, LG's batters were blocked by KT's mound. KT planned to block the first half well and then lead it to a must-win group because starter Ko Young-pyo was unable to throw for a long time, and this was exactly right.
Moon Sang-chul hit a pre-emptive two-run shot from LG starter Detrick Ens in the top of the second inning to lead 2-0, and immediately started the bullpen in the fifth inning when Ko Young-pyo gave up one run in the bottom of the fourth inning. In the bottom of the sixth inning with a 3-1 lead, he gave up one run due to a disappointing defensive mistake, but the flow came to KT as Kim Min-soo struck out Moon Bo-kyung with a swing and miss and caught Oh Ji-hwan with a ground ball in front of the second base.
After that, Son Dong-hyun, So Hyung-joon, Park Young-hyun, followed and tied the LG lineup scoreless, winning by 3 to 2, 1 point.
LG also failed to overcome the one-run gap in the end, although Eliaser Hernandez took the mound in the eighth inning and threw two innings while closing pitcher Yoo Young-chan was unable to play due to his father's injury.
Game 2 is a showdown between domestic starting pitchers of LG Lim Chan-kyu and KT Um Sang-baek. Lim Chan-kyu recorded 10-6-1 hold and a 3.83 ERA, while Um Sang-baek won the most wins among domestic pitchers with 13-10 losses and a 4.88 ERA.
In the end, the key to the second game is how long the starting pitchers can lead without giving up the first run.
indyk@sportschosun.com
