Professional baseball SSG Landers overcame KT Wiz’s natural enemy Ko Young-pyo (33), who had been weak throughout the season, and ran for five consecutive wins.
SSG won 4-1 against KT Wiz in the “2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League” held at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on the 21st, winning five consecutive games. SSG, which recorded 67 wins, 2 draws and 68 losses, is still sixth in the league. However, it won the showdown with fifth-ranked KT (69 wins, 2 draws, 69 losses, and .500 wins), and succeeded in catching up to a 0.5 game gap with KT.메이저사이트
With a game set to have a decisive impact on advancing to the postseason, SSG was not expected to have an easy game. This is because Ko Young-pyo, a natural enemy, started as a starting pitcher for KT. Ko has displayed poor performance this season with five wins and eight losses and an earned run average of 5.12, in 17 games (95 innings). However, he was different whenever he met SSG. Prior to the game, he had overwhelming performance against SSG by recording three wins and an earned run average of 1.80 in three games (20 innings). His overall relative performance was good with 13 wins and five losses and two holds with an earned run average of 3.38 in 30 games (138 ⅓ innings), and as of 2021, he had stronger performance with 10 wins and one loss and an earned run average of 2.08 with 14 games (95 innings).
SSG hitters had difficulty targeting Ko as well. He remained scoreless until the third inning, being dragged by KT 0-1. However, Guillermo Herredia hit a solo homer in the fourth inning, successfully reversing the mood. In the sixth inning, Han Yu-som hit a come-from-behind solo homer, reversing the game 2-1. Ko had six hits (one homer) with two walks and four strikeouts in six innings, before being replaced by Kim in the seventh inning.
SSG hitters failed to satisfactorily target Ko. Ko fulfilled his role by achieving quality start (three earned runs or less in six innings). However, SSG starter Roenis Elias displayed superior pitching by displaying six hits, two walks and seven strikeouts in seven innings. Batters also garnered minimal score against Ko, and was able to easily manage the game by successfully targeting KT closer Park Young-hyun in response to Elias’ good pitching.
Park Sung-han, who had three hits and two RBIs against Park Young-hyun, said in an interview after the game, “(Ko Young-pyo) is a very good pitcher and pitched very well against our team. Honestly, everyone is bad at this. So I thought about hitting just one hit, but since I had a hit from my first at-bat, I think I was able to hit more comfortably. Although I did not score many points, Elias pitched well and I think I achieved a good victory today as I continued the mood.” “All the players knew very well that two games against KT are really important. That’s why I must have wanted to hit a hit somehow. I felt the same way,” he added.
After the fall rain, the game was full of postseason-like atmosphere. “Today, the weather and the fans’ support gave me a slight smell of autumn, so I have to keep smelling it,” Park said with a smile. “Of course, it will be difficult to win. However, I think I can try in this atmosphere. I think I will be able to show you a good game,” Park said, renewing his commitment to play in the fall baseball.
Elias, who won the starting showdown with Ko Young-pyo, said, “I’m so happy to win a really important game to go to autumn baseball. There were many good hitters in KT, so I poured out everything from the beginning and the focus led to good results. I was disappointed that there were many crisis situations in each of the last seven innings, but the coach came to the mound and relaxed me. So I think I was able to overcome the crisis well.”