KT changed its pitcher to Son Dong-hyun in the bottom of the eighth inning with a 1-0 lead against KIA in Gwangju on April 24. However, the team immediately ran into trouble when Son gave up the tying run on a wild pitch, and although it immediately broke the tie with two runs in the top of the ninth, it narrowly won a one-run victory after Kim Jae-yoon gave up one run in the bottom of the ninth.
KT’s pitching staff consists of Son Dong-hyun, Park Young-hyun, and Kim Jae-yoon. Like Ko Young-pyo on this day, it has been KT’s pattern to end the game with Park Young-hyun in the eighth and Kim Jae-yoon in the ninth after the starter has closed out the seventh inning, but Son Dong-hyun has taken over that role in Park’s absence. In a close game, KT earned two wins on the weekend.
While the baseball team for the Hangzhou Asian Games has yet to board a plane, the KBO has already begun its Asian Games campaign. Ten clubs have been playing since July 23, sending key players to the national team. For the first time, the league will continue to play during an international tournament, so the absence of the Asian Games representatives has been one of the biggest variables at the end of the season.
Baseball at the Asian Games concludes on October 7. Teams will have to deal with the absences for more than a month until they return home the next day. With less than 20 games each, the final battles, especially for the top-five spots and postseason berths, will be outlined in those few days. Digesting the international breaks that teams have been preparing for will be key.
Teams that sent pitchers rather than bats will be playing with a big variable. Of the top six teams in contention for the top five spots, five of them, with the exception of SSG, have sent either a must-win pitcher or a starter to the national team. Each team’s approach to filling the void is slightly different.
LG, which had been preparing to send out closer Go Woo-seok to round out the group, had another setback in the form of an injury to Ham Deok-joo, but veteran Kim Jin-sung filled the void. Kim pitched in both games of the doubleheader against Hanwha on the 23rd and 24th, earning back-to-back saves. LG, which lost third baseman Moon Bo-kyung but still had veteran Kim Min-sung and utilized multiple pitchers throughout the season to fill in for injuries and poor performances by Jung Woo-young and Ko Woo-seok, handled the Asian Games in a similar fashion, winning two straight games to get into the “win count”.
KT uses its starters to fill the bullpen void. Against KIA on the 23rd, starter Cuevas threw a season-high 112 pitches in 8.1 innings, followed by closer Kim Jae-yoon, and on the 24th, Ko Young-pyo threw seven scoreless innings. KT, whose starters have the best innings digestibility in the league, will look to make up for the lack of bullpen depth with the strength of their starters.메이저사이트
Doosan sent one starter, but a must-win, Kwak Bin, the No. 1 starter in Korea. They decided to fill the gap by using Jang Won-jun and Choi Won-jun as a 1+1 in the secondary and bullpen, but they have yet to win a game. The duo pitched side-by-side against NC on the 19th and again against NC on the 24th, pitching 5.1 innings of two-run ball but losing by one run.
The second-place NC also won a hard-fought 11-inning game against Doosan on the 24th in the absence of middle reliever Kim Young-gyu, who had 21 holds. KIA, which is on the threshold of the top five, had just ended a seven-game losing streak, but fell into a tough spot after sending out pitcher Choi Ji-min for the second straight game.
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