William Cuevas, the ‘returning ace’ of the KT Wiz, will make his first start of the weekend.
“At first, I was going to have him pitch in Incheon, but it was difficult due to scheduling issues such as visa problems, so I decided to have him start on the weekend,” KT manager Lee Kang-cheol said before the game against SSG Landers at SSG Landers Field in Incheon on the 13th, adding, “He will pitch on Saturday.”
KT will play a three-game midweek series against SSG starting on the 13th, followed by a three-game weekend series against the Samsung Lions in Suwon. Coincidentally, Cuevas pitched well against Samsung. In 13 appearances against Samsung since his debut, he has a 7-2 record with a 3.14 ERA. Of the nine teams, Cuevas has the most wins against Samsung.스포츠토토
In particular, the tiebreaker against Samsung in 2021 was the game that marked Cuevas as an ace for all baseball fans. After fanning 108 batters in seven innings against the Suwon NC Dinos on Oct. 28, KT was tied for first place with Samsung with 76 wins, 9 losses and 59 ties when the tiebreaker was decided on Oct. 31, Cuevas pitched seven scoreless innings on just two days’ rest to secure KT’s first regular season win.
It will be a meaningful return for Cuevas against Samsung.
“It’s not uncommon for one player to change the atmosphere of a team and have a good performance,” Lee said. “If Cuevas stays in the rotation and pitches like he used to, it will give the team a lot of chances to win. Also, Cuevas is close to the players and is a good atmosphere maker. If Cuevas comes in and stabilizes the starting lineup, I think we can rebound,” he said.
KT was one of the favorites to win the title before the season, but they were in last place until last week, when they moved up to ninth. The team can’t afford to take it easy and is using a strategy of going all-out to win when they can. “We have to win when we can,” said Lee. Last week, Pil Seung-jo pitched three games in a row, but we had to go to extra innings, but I thought it was better than losing without him. “I don’t think we need to win quickly to move up,” he said, “but I think it’s better than losing without playing. If we can increase our winning percentage by more than 5% every month from now on, we will eventually move up in the rankings. We will run the season by making the players feel comfortable and taking the matches we can get.”