"I shook off all the regrets of the regular season!" 0% Miracle, made by two foreigners...What would I have done without Cuevas and Benjamin
"I shook off all the regrets of the regular season!" 0% Miracle, made by two foreigners...What would I have done without Cuevas and Benjamin
Blog Article
It was a brilliant autumn baseball performance by two foreign pitchers.
KT Wiz foreign pitchers William Cuevas and Wes Benjamin are the main characters. In 2022, Benjamin joined KT as a substitute foreign pitcher and took the KBO League stage for the first time. Cuevas was the foreign player he replaced at the time. He replaced Cuevas, who was out of power due to long-term injuries.
Cuevas, who left KT, and Benjamin, who joined KT in place of him, have been a team since the middle of the 2023 season. Cuevas returned to KT as a substitute for Boschler.
The two foreigners led KT to the Korean Series last season by playing one-two punch. Benjamin posted an ERA of 3.54 with 48 outs and 157 strikeouts in 160 innings in 29 regular-season games. Cuevas was the winner with an ERA of 2.60 with 26 strikeouts in 18 games and no losses in 114 ⅓ innings.
Both of them renewed their contracts with KT ahead of this season. However, they failed to show as good performance as the previous season this season.
Cuevas pitched in 31 games and recorded 7 wins, 12 losses, 173 ⅓ innings, 66 strikeouts, 154 strikeouts, and an ERA of 4.10. He was the only one in the starting lineup who had a gap due to injury this season. However, due to playing 184 innings in his debut season in the 2019 season, Cuevas even stepped down from the mound without taking responsibility for even five innings in two games at the end of the season.
Benjamin posted an ERA of 4.63 with 48 walks and 156 strikeouts during 149 ⅔ innings in 28 games. He felt uncomfortable with his elbow during the season and volunteered to take a three-week rest. He had an ERA of 5.22 in 70 ⅔ innings in 14 games in the second half of the season.
However, the two pitchers were different on the fall baseball stage. First, Cuevas performed well. He started in the first game of the wild card game of the 2024 Shinhan SOL Bank KBO League at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Tuesday, and pitched well with four hits, no outs, and nine strikeouts during six innings.
He showed stable performance after overcoming the crisis with two outs and runners on the second and third bases in the bottom of the first inning. He was in crisis due to Oh Yoon-seok's catch error and Cho Sang-soo's steal in the bottom of the third inning, but he did not follow-up hits and completed three-out innings in the fourth and fifth innings. At the bottom of the sixth inning, he was hit by Jung Soo-bin and Jarrod Young, and was in crisis with one out and runners on the first and third bases, but he struck out Kim Jae-hwan and Yang Seok-hwan and came down from the mound without losing a point.
"I think I saw the same ball as the 21-year-old tiebreaker," KT coach Lee Kang-chul said after the game. "I can't throw away this card. I threw a ball that I rarely saw recently," he said. "Cuevas threw well today, and I was able to save (the late) Young-pyo."
Benjamin took over the baton to Cuevas in the second game the following day. "Benjamin will throw for a long time. He must have been irritated because he pitched well," coach Lee Kang-chul said, hoping for Benjamin's good pitching.
He met the expectations of the team's coach. He allowed three hits, no outs and six strikeouts in seven innings. Benjamin, who started the game by allowing three outs and no outs in the first inning, tied the game in the second inning as well. He allowed Kim Ki-yeon to have his first hit of the game in the bottom of the third inning, but he did not falter and did not take the follow-up hit.
Benjamin, who finished the inning with three outs in the fourth inning, was in the crisis for the first time in the bottom of the fifth inning. He sent out leadoff hitter Yang Seok-hwan with a single. With Kang Seung-ho's liner to the second base, Huh Kyung-min hit a hit in front of the left field. However, Mel Rojas Jr. showed good defense. He successfully shot Yang, who ran home around the third base. Benjamin, who overcame the crisis, grounded out Kim Ki-yeon with two outs and did not allow a run. 스포츠토토
Kang Baek-ho's timely hit with an RBI single in the top of the sixth inning broke the long 0 balance. Benjamin gained more strength afterwards. He grounded out Lee Yoo-chan, Jung Soo-bin and Kim Jae-ho in the bottom of the sixth inning. In the bottom of the seventh inning, he also struck out Jarrod, Kim Jae-hwan, and Yang Seok-hwan, three strikeouts.