19 days of rest, almost 3 weeks. Thanks to the regular season ending a week earlier than other teams, the second-place KT Wiz got the rest that only the first-place team that advanced to the Korean Series could get. Therefore, there were many expectations that even the NC Dinos, who had great momentum in the semi-playoffs, would not be able to overcome the power of the well-rested KT Wiz.
However, in the first game, KT lagged behind NC in all aspects. Starter William Cuevas gave up 7 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits, 2 walks, and 2 strikeouts in 3 innings. Fans who were expecting a great pitching battle between Eric Peddy, a three-time champion pitcher, and Cuevas, an undefeated pitcher with a 100% winning percentage, were taken aback.안전놀이터
The batters couldn’t even touch Peddie’s ball properly. He struck out 12 times to Peddie through the 6th inning, setting a new record for most strikeouts in the playoffs.
The biggest problem was defense. And that defense ultimately resulted in a 5-9 defeat. Third baseman Hwang Jae-gyun missed Park Min-woo’s ordinary infield fly in the top of the third inning when the team was down 0-2. Hwang Jae-gyun, who had been stepping back while watching the batted ball, went to the side again and put his glove on the ball, but the ball hit the tip of his glove and fell to the ground. Park Geon-woo, who went straight to third base, hit an RBI double, making the score 0-3, and second base runner Park Geon-woo also scored on a hit by the follow-up batter, making it 0-4.
In the top of the fourth inning, Cuevas caught Kim Joo-won’s sacrifice bunt at first base with no outs and immediately threw it to second base, which ended up being an error that ended up in center field.
With 2 outs and 1st and 2nd bases, Kwon Hee-dong’s triple to right-center made it 1-8. However, at this time, Baejeongdae’s defense was also disappointing. It seemed like a batted ball that a regular Bae Jeong-dae could easily catch, but Bae Jeong-dae, who followed along well, hit the end of the outstretched glove and fell.
If Jae-gyun Hwang had caught an infield fly and not put Park Min-woo on base, and Bae Jeong-dae had caught Kwon Hee-dong’s batted ball as usual, 3 points would not have been awarded. 1-8 and 1-5 are completely different score differences.
Overall, the defense of KT’s fielders was strangely sloppy on this day. Today’s lineup was one that paid particular attention to defense because it was the day Cuevas took the mound. He seemed unfamiliar with the floating ball or unable to adapt to the lighting.
KT had no night training while preparing for this playoffs. Training time was 2pm. The Blue and White match, which was held close to the playoffs, was held at 4 p.m. The lights would have been turned on in the second half of the game, but it would have been different from a night game like the first game.
It was clearly uncharacteristic of KT to play a strangely sloppy defense in a night game played 20 days after the last game on the 10th. Since the players had been playing night games for over 6 months, there would have been no problem, but perhaps Hwang Jae-gyun and Bae Jeong-dae, who were said to be good at defending only on this day, made mistakes that they did not usually make.