The so-called aces of the KBO league are unusual. In the 2023 season opener, the aces of each team are being beaten regardless of you or me. Besides, even the bullpen is uneasy. From the opening, mound consumption is not the only thing.
In the KBO League opening two-game series, only the Kiwoom Heroes won two straight victories over the Hanwha Eagles in a row, but the other eight teams shared one win each. All of them were fierce battles, and 4 out of 10 games were won by 1 point. It was a thrilling match, but it was largely because the team’s aces couldn’t do their part.
First of all, in the opening game on the 1st, Casey Kelly (LG Twins) and David Buchanan (Samsung Lions), who are representatives of the KBO League, and Raul Alcantara (Doosan Bears), who returned after 3 years as the last 20-win pitcher in the KBO League, all collapsed. 먹튀검증
And on the 2nd, Albert Suarez (Samsung) and the 2023 World Baseball Classic (WBC) national team members Gu Chang-mo (NC Dinos) Kim Yun-shik (LG) So Joon So-jun (kt Wiz) also failed to use their strength properly and lost a lot of points.
Not only that, Birch Smith (Hanwha Eagles), a newcomer, threw less than 3 innings due to a shoulder injury and voluntarily pitched, and Eui-ri Lee (KIA Tigers) won the victory, but gave up 6 walks, still revealing a serious problem in control, making the second starter. He has been feeling anxious since the start of the season, such as not being able to show his down side.
The sluggish performance of domestic aces, Koo Chang-mo and Sohn Joon-jun, is truly shocking.
Koo Chang-mo was expected to win 6 points with the help of the other line in the Daegu Samsung match against Suarez, a foreigner in the second year, but a generous victory was expected, but he allowed Kang Min-ho to tie 3 runs, striking out 6 in 4⅓ innings while striking out 7 hits (1 Home run) collapsed with 3 walks and 6 runs.
Joon Sohn was more miserable than Changmo Gu.
So Joon Sohn, who was nicknamed ‘Dae Hyung-jun’ because he was strong in big games, started the 2nd game against LG and was beaten like a batting ball pitcher. He faced 18 batters in 2⅓ innings, giving up 9 runs on 10 hits and 2 walks. On July 5, 2021, Kiwoom Jeonseo 2⅓ innings, 8 hits (2 home runs), 2 walks, 10 runs (8 ERA), it is the first large-scale loss.
Kim Yun-shik, who took the WBC national team position with outstanding performance from the second half of last year and emerged as a pillar of the LG mound this season, also hit a 2-run home run by kt’s Anthony Alford at the end of the 1st inning. If Lim Chan-gyu, who came out of the bullpen in the inning with no bases loaded, hadn’t blocked it with a scoreless run, the run could have been much more.
Along with these domestic aces, foreign aces are also strangely unable to use their strength.
The sluggishness of Samsung’s foreign one-two punch is bleak for Samsung, which is still considered a low-ranking player.
Buchanan, who started the opening game for the third consecutive year in the best condition, suffered 3 consecutive losses in 5 innings and allowed 4 runs. Knocked down by 6 runs.
Kelly, who is synonymous with consistency and is celebrating his 5th year in the KBO League this year, also started the opening game after 2 years and bowed his head with 8 hits and 6 runs, including 2 home runs to Kang Baek-ho and Alford, in 5⅓ innings.
As the starters collapsed early, so did the burden of the bullpen.
In the opening game in Jamsil, where Dan Straley (Lotte) and Raul Alcantara (Doosan) faced off as starting pitchers, both teams combined for 26 hits and 17 pitches, and nine pitchers each had to defend the mound. 9 people from LG and 8 people from kt had to pitch.
In addition to these games, in the opening game of Literary KIA and SSG, only three pitchers came out, from starter Sean Anderson to Kim Ki-hoon and Choi Ji-min, and all other games had to be attrition with more than 5 bullpens.
While the aces of each team were humiliated like this, domestic veteran Kim Gwang-hyun became the pitcher with the minimum number of 150 wins, and Ahn Woo-jin, who rose to the ranks of the best pitchers, set a new record for the most strikeouts and the most strikeouts in the opening game, showing off the dignity of one of the best in the military world by striking back with no runs.
In addition, Wes Benjamin (kt), a second-year foreign player, showed perfect pitching up to 5 innings against LG, pitching 6 scoreless innings, and Eric Peddy (NC), a new foreign player who played in the major leagues until last year, showed an impressive performance by pitching 5 scoreless innings against Samsung. attracted