87.9% chance preempted! Going to Daegu for 3 consecutive wins? Goal of winning 2 games in Jamsil → LG killer '4 days off' will throw a winning move
87.9% chance preempted! Going to Daegu for 3 consecutive wins? Goal of winning 2 games in Jamsil → LG killer '4 days off' will throw a winning move
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The KT Wiz, which has been continuously winning four consecutive games since its decision to rank fifth, has no intention of losing a single game of the semi-playoff. If the goal of winning two games at Jamsil becomes a reality, the KT Wiz plans to send out the LG killer a day earlier in the third round at home to secure its trip to Daegu with three consecutive wins.
KT Wiz of professional baseball dominated the series by winning 3-2 in the first round of the semi-playoff (best of five) against the LG Twins in the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO postseason at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on the 5th.
After playing the fifth-place match and the wild card match, KT acquired an 87.9 percent chance of advancing to the playoffs (29 times out of 33), giving an unexpected blow to LG, the third-place team in the regular season and the defending champion. Even if the team narrows its scope to a semi-playoff based on the best-of-five series, the winning team's chances of advancing to the playoffs stand at 73.3 percent (11 times out of 15) in the first round. In addition, KT has won three consecutive post-season games in 2024 from the first round of the wild card game.
The hero of Game 1 was Ko Young-pyo who had four innings, three hits, no outs, two strikeouts, one run and 56 pitches after taking a day off. After the wild-card game, coach Lee Kang-cheol repeatedly agonized over the selection of Game 1 starting pitcher, but chose to take a day off from Ko, who regained his ace form in September instead of taking a three-day break from Um Sang-baek. "If Um Sang-baek is awarded in the first round, the rotation will be all twisted. In the first round, I just want Ko to make the game happen. Then, we can start the normal rotation from the second round," Lee said.
As the head coach said, KT's starting team can take at least four days off from the second game because it chose Ko Young-pyo's card in the first game. Um Sang-baek, who played in the fifth-place match on the 1st, was confirmed to start the second round of the semi-playoff on the 6th after a break on the 4th, and William Cuevas, the starter of the first round of the wild card match on the 2nd, will play Game 3 on the 8th after a break on the 5th, and Wes Benjamin, the starter of the second round of the wild card match on the 3rd, will play Game 4 on the 9th after a break on the 5th, and Go Young-pyo, the starter on the 11th after a break on the 5th.
However, according to a source familiar with the KT team, Lee Kang-chul, who aimed to secure two wins at Jamsil, has chosen Benjamin as the starting pitcher for the third round, not Cuevas. In that case, Benjamin will take four days off and Cuevas will take six days off to take the mound.
The reason is that the two foreign pitchers` record against LG Twins is the reason. Benjamin has been the Twins` killer for two consecutive years since the following year after joining KT in 2022. Benjamin posted five wins and two losses and an earned run average of 1.66 (11 earned runs in 59 ⅔ innings) in 10 games against LG for three seasons, four wins and no losses in five games during the 2023 season, and one win and one loss in four games and 1.93 ERA in four games this year. 스포츠토토
On the contrary, Cuevas always became smaller whenever he met LG. He played in nine games since 2019, but struggled without a win by posting four losses and an earned run average of 9.00 (43 earned runs in 43 innings). Against LG again this year, he became a losing pitcher at Suwon on June 8, when he allowed eight hits (one homer) with three strikeouts and seven runs during five innings.