Will a legendary ‘undefeated pitcher’ who never loses once be born? Even after joining midway through the season, they are poised to end the pennant race without a loss. Ace has already achieved his 9th victory. The protagonist is William Cuevas (33) of the KT Wiz.
Cuevas led the team to victory with a scoreless pitch in the first game of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League away game double header against the Hanwha Eagles held at Hanwha Life Insurance Eagles Park in Daejeon at 2 p.m. the previous day (17th).
On this day, Cuevas earned his 9th win of the season by pitching 7 innings (94 pitches), allowing 7 hits, 5 strikeouts, 2 walks, and no runs. Cuevas has started 15 games this season and is showing impressive results with 9 wins, no losses, and an ERA of 2.86. He has pitched a total of 91⅓ innings, allowing 86 hits (3 home runs) and 29 runs (29 earned). Notably, while he has struck out 79 times, he has only walked 18 times. WHIP (on-base percentage allowed per inning) 1.14. The hitting percentage was 0.248. Quality starts (less than 3 earned runs in 6 innings as a starter) are pitched 11 times.
Cuevas is a foreign pitcher who reconnected with KT during this season. After first entering the KBO League stage in 2019, he recorded 33 wins, 23 losses, and an average ERA of 3.89 over 4 seasons (82 games) at KT until last year. He always did his part, earning double-digit wins in 2019 and 2020. In particular, in 2021, he started the regular season first place match (tiebreaker) against the Samsung Lions, and the scene of him roaring after pitching 7 innings with 1 hit, 8 strikeouts, 3 walks, and no runs remains in the hearts of many baseball fans.
Afterwards, Cuevas left the team due to injury after appearing in two games last season and winning only one. However, this season, KT Wiz’s new foreign player, Bo Schulser, performed poorly with 1 win, 7 losses, and an ERA of 5.62, so the KT front office re-recruited Cuevas. As a result, this turned out to be a godsend.
On this day, Cuevas’ performance shined. Cuevas was particularly strong against Hanwha this season. Including today’s game, he has 3 wins, no losses, and an average ERA of 0.43 in 3 games. He allowed 15 hits, 2 walks, and struck out 24 in 21 innings, allowing only one run.
It was a pitch that could truly be called a ‘Hanwha killer.’ In the first inning, he gave up an infield hit to Noh Si-hwan with two outs, but caught Chae Eun-seong with a fly ball to right field. Then, in the 3rd inning, 6 batters in a row with 2 outs, gave up a double to right-center field to Hyunbin Moon, but guided Williams to a ground ball to 2nd base.
In the 4th inning, with 2 outs, a hit and a walk, he faced a crisis with 1st and 2nd base, but Kwon Gwang-min struck out on a missed swing. In the 5th inning, he gave up a heavy hit to Lee Do-yoon with one out, but the next two batters were hit. In the 6th inning, Chae Eun-seong hit a single to right-center with one out and then walked Kim Tae-yeon with two outs, but pinch hitter Jang Jin-hyuk was thrown out with a fly ball to right field.
In the 7th inning, with 2 outs, he gave up consecutive hits to Moon Hyun-bin and Williams, putting him in the greatest danger at first and third base, but he completed his mission that day by catching Noh Si-hwan with a ground ball in front of the pitcher. In the end, KT won 7-0 after Lee Sang-dong took charge of two innings from the 8th inning, and with the momentum, KT also won the second game of the double header.먹튀검증
After the game, Cuevas said, “It was effective to try to compete with the batter aggressively from the beginning. It wasn’t intentional, but since it was a double header, I wanted to give strength to the bullpen by taking charge of the inning on the mound for as long as possible. However, I walked Hanwha’s Kim Tae-yeon. “I allowed as many as two innings. I could have gone one more inning, but I feel like I couldn’t because of those two walks, so I’m personally sorry and disappointed,” he said.
He continued, “Not only me, but all of the players are thinking about going into the fall baseball season with a higher ranking than their individual records. I think that if they focus on winning the team right now, their individual records, such as 10 wins, will improve. Also, at the last moment, when they get hit by a batted ball, I think “You were worried about me, so I’ll have to monitor his condition, but I want to tell you that he’s okay right now,” he said. Cuevas is now scheduled to take part in the Gwangju KIA game on the 22nd after a four-day rest. Will they be able to enjoy the joy of achieving double-digit wins again this season?
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