KT, The Undefeated Winner, Will Take The Bus To Changwon With One Win And One Loss
Wes Benjamin's shoulders are heavy.
KT Wiz, led by head coach Lee Kang-chul, will play the second playoff game against the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO postseason NC Dinos at Suwon KT Wiz Park on the 31st.
After a three-week break after the final regular season game on the 10th, KT, which had its first game against NC the previous day, lost 5-9 and started the series with one loss.
NC's "20 wins-209K" ace Eric Paddy pitched well with three hits (one homer) in six innings and 12 strikeouts and one run with one out. Since then, Kim Si-hoon and Lee Yong-chan have been shaken in the ninth inning, but Kim Young-kyu and Ryu Jin-wook, who came up earlier, neatly blocked the seventh and eighth innings.
On the other hand, KT's trusted unbeaten winning percentage king William Cuevas was shaken by six hits and seven runs (four earned runs) in three innings. Cuevas, who joined in the middle of the season as a substitute foreign player for Boschulcer, won the KBO League's winning percentage with 12 wins without a single loss in the regular season. I had a bitter taste of the first loss of the season in the fall baseball.
KT, whose trusted ace collapsed, predicted Benjamin as a starter on the 31st. Benjamin went 15-6 with a 3.54 ERA in 29 games this season. He finished second in multiple wins after Peddy.
The first half was ordinary with 9 wins and 3 losses and a 4.16 ERA in 17 games, but the second half was different. He pitched well with 6 wins and 3 losses and a 2.69 ERA in 12 games, adding to KT's rise to second place.
However, it is not without concerns. Benjamin's performance against NC is not good this season. Considering that he has four wins and an ERA of 0.84 in five games against LG, which has the best performance, one win and two losses in three games, and a 5.65 ERA, it is completely opposite.
On May 9, he was shaken by five hits, four outs and five runs (three earned runs) in 3.1 innings. 3.1 innings is Benjamin's minimum innings of the season (excluding two innings against Samsung on October 6 because his shoulders have cooled since the suspension of the game due to rain). In the game on July 30, he pitched well with four hits and two runs in six innings, but in the game on August 11, he showed an inconsistent performance with eight hits and five runs (four earned runs) in five innings.
If Benjamin collapses, KT will have to take a bus to Changwon with two losses. If you lose just once in Changwon, the series will be over.
Benjamin had a fighting spirit in baseball last fall. After pitching six innings of one run (win) against Suwon NC in the final regular season match on October 10, he took the mound as relief pitcher in Game 1 of the wild card game against the KIA Tigers on the 13th and deleted one inning with three strikeouts. And after resting for three days, he started Game 1 of the semi-playoff against the Kiwoom Heroes on the 17th and surprised KT fans with five hits and no runs in seven innings.
Can Benjamin bring another victory to the team by recalling last year's memory.