The first round of the playoffs is ‘arm wrestling’

The two best foreign pitchers will face off on the road to the Korean Series.

NC Dinos Eric Peddie (30, USA), who dominated the KBO League mound with 20 wins this year, and KT Wiz William Cuevas (33, Venezuela), who recorded 12 wins and undefeated after joining as a substitute last June, are in the first round of the playoffs. encountered in.메이저놀이터

NC and KT will play the first round of the playoffs with 3 wins out of 5 at Suwon KT Wiz Park on the 30th. NC, ranked 4th this season, defeated the Doosan Bears in the wild card game and then advanced to the playoffs by completely defeating 3rd place SSG Landers in the semi-playoffs by winning all three games.

In response, KT finished the pennant race in second place and prepared for the playoffs with ease. After the Suwon Doosan game on the 10th, which was the last game of the regular season, we took a break of nearly 3 weeks.

NC and KT are known as the youngest teams in domestic professional baseball. NC broke the KBO League’s eight-team system and joined the first team in 2013. KT, which witnessed the founding of NC, emerged as the 10th professional baseball team in 2015, two years later. In the beginning, both teams were ranked at the bottom, but NC won the overall championship in 2020 and KT in 2021. This is the first time the two teams have met on the fall baseball stage.

NC, aiming to take the lead, selected Ace Peddie, who won this season’s Triple Crown, as the starter for the first game. Peddie recorded 20 wins and 6 losses in 30 games this year. He conquered the 20-win milestone again in three years since Raul Alcantara (31, Dominican Republic), who played for Doosan in 2020. Additionally, he won three awards as a pitcher with 209 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.00.

However, Peddie did not finish the pennant race well. In the game against Gwangju KIA Tigers on the 16th, his right forearm was injured after being hit by an opposing hitter’s hard hit. Since then, he has never played in the postseason because his injury has not healed. However, Pedi’s presence cannot be ignored. Just the possibility that Fedi could appear put pressure on the opposing team, which acted as NC’s invisible strength.

Cuevas, who is about to face off against Fedy, is the leader in winning percentage this season. He is also a key player in KT’s integrated championship in 2021. At that time, he led KT to the Korean Series by pitching 7 scoreless innings in the first-place match against the Samsung Lions, and in the first game of the Korean Series against Doosan, he pitched 7 2/3 innings, allowing 1 run, contributing to the overall victory.

Cuevas left KT in May of last year due to an elbow injury, but after joining as a substitute in June of this year, he performed well with 12 wins and no losses. Of course, the winning percentage was his. In particular, KT recorded an overwhelming win rate of 14 wins in 18 games in which Cuevas appeared.

Fedi and Cuevas dominate the opposing batting line with similar types of balls. Peddie is a sweeper pitch with a speed of 140 km/h, which is a style that induces hitters to miss swings. I have more fun with a ball that bends laterally more than a slider. Cuevas’ breaking ball is also sharp. Although he’s not much of a sweeper, he does strike out with a sharp cutter to the left. How both batting lineups attack this breaking ball will likely be the key to winning the first game.

Meanwhile, KT excluded key hitter Kang Baek-ho (24) from the playoff entry. Kang Baek-ho suffered a rupture in his side muscle during a recent team match against Blue and White. In the end, he was unable to appear on the fall baseball stage.