| In the ‘2021 Pro Baseball Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ held at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on the afternoon of the 31st, kt Wiz and Samsung Lions fight for the first place in the regular season, kt starter Quevas. 2021.10.31/News1 © News1 Reporter Jeonggungshik |
William Cuevas, who started after taking a two-day break, played hard and led KT Wiz’s first regular season championship.
In the first place match of the 2021 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League held at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on the 31st, Cuevas scored a scoreless score in 7 innings, 1 hit, 3 walks, and 8 strikeouts, laying the foundation for a 1-0 victory.
KT, which has competed in the KBO League since 2015, challenged the regular season championship for the first time this year, the 7th season.
Manager Lee Kang-cheol pulled out a Cuevas card in the match, which had to be captured unconditionally in order to take first place in the regular season. It was a shocking decision as Cuevas started and pitched 7 innings in the second game of the double header against the NC Dinos on the 28th.
In response, manager Lee Kang-cheol showed strong trust, saying, “I thought about several pitchers, but I thought the game would be over if I collapsed in the beginning. Thinking of a pitcher who would block at least three innings, I took out the Cuevas card, which was strong against Samsung.”
In fact, Cuevas appeared in 5 games against Samsung this year and was strong with a 2.97 ERA with 2 wins and 1 loss.
Cuevas fought harder than the manager’s wish that it was okay to block just three innings.
At the end of the first inning, Cuevas allowed lead hitter Hae-Min Park to walk, showing an uneasy look. However, he sighed as he turned Koo Ja-wook back to center fielder Oh Jae-il and struck out and caught Hae-min Park, who was stealing base with second base.
Cuevas was stable from the second inning. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Oh Jae-il took an infield hit, and he continued to score no goals without allowing other batters to advance.
At the end of the 7th inning, when he was driven by a teammate’s error, he did not concede any runs due to his excellent crisis management skills. Gerard Hoying did not properly catch the bat that Oh Jae-il flew from first base to right field. Fortunately, batter Jae-il Oh let him out at second base, but first-base runner Ja-wook Koo advanced to third.
Afterwards, Cuevas caught Kang Min-ho with a floating ball at second base, and turned Lee Won-seok into a strikeout in a vain swing, breaking Samsung’s will to pursue.
After Cuevas played their role as a starter, Park Si-young and Kim Jae-yoon went on the mound and finished the game with a scoreless victory.
dyk0609@news1.kr
