Park Young-hyeon (20), the “trustworthy man” who shines with the most appearances in the team, could not block the opponent’s batting line. Unfortunately, this is the current state of KT Wiz, where the bullpen is insecure.
KT recorded a 7-7 draw against the Hanwha Eagles in the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ held at Suwon kt Wiz Park on the 14th.
On this day, kt played a difficult game. During the game, outfielders Anthony Alford and Hwang Jae-gyun were replaced due to injuries. Alford suffered back muscle cramps while running, and Hwang Jae-gyun was hit on the instep of his left foot by his foul hit and went to the hospital for an X-ray examination.
The mound also failed to block the opponent’s batting line. Starting pitcher Wes Benjamin failed to make it past the fifth inning for the first time this season. He left the mound early with 6 hits, 2 walks, 5 strikeouts and 3 runs in 4 innings. The relief pitchers who came to the mound after that also failed to do their part.
Lee Chae-ho, who came to the mound in place of Benjamin, gave up one walk and left the mound. Afterwards, Kim Young-hyun (1 ⅔ innings, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 run) – Shim Jae-min (0 innings, 1 hit, 1 run) – Kim Min (⅔ innings, 3 hits, 1 walk, 2 runs, 1 earned run) – Park Young-hyun (0 innings, 1 hit, no runs) – Kim Tae-oh (2 ⅔ innings) 1 hit, 2 walks, no runs allowed) – Kim Jae-yoon (2 innings, 1 walk, no run) – Son Dong-hyeon (1 inning, no run) and most of the rescuers were far from clean pitching.
At the end of the 4th inning, where they were trailing 0-1, kt took a 3-1 lead thanks to Park Byeong-ho’s grounder RBI and Moon Sang-cheol’s 2-run homer. But after that, the bullpen couldn’t hold on. He allowed 2 runs in a row in the 5th to 7th innings, giving up 6 runs only after the starting pitcher left.
The most painful part was the scene where Park Young-hyun lost a point. Park Young-hyeon climbed the mound against Moon Hyun-bin, a pinch hitter with 1 company, 2nd and 3rd base, who was in a tight 5-5 game. Prior to this day, Park Young-Hyun was a trustworthy man who pitched in 6 games, the most on the team this season, recording an average ERA of 2.84 in 6⅓ innings with 2 holds.
When kt faced a crisis of giving up the lead, they posted the most reliable Park Young-hyun, but Moon Hyun-bin hit a two-run double and conceded an additional run to 5-7. Park Young-hyeon came down after dealing with only one batter, but he failed to live up to the expectations of the bench to not necessarily concede.
Currently, kt’s bullpen is not 100% perfect. There are many injuries to key players such as Kim Min-soo and Joo-kwon, and fatigue is accumulated from close matches in every game. In particular, a lot of burden is placed on Park Young-hyun. If the baton continued to hold on somehow and set-up man Park Young-hyun, after that, Kim Jae-yoon, the finisher, played baseball to protect the team’s victory.
However, on this day,안전놀이터 the plan went awry as the majority of bullpen pitchers showed disappointing pitches. I managed to catch up with the power of the other line and achieved a draw, but it was not the scenario I wanted.
KT poured out all available personnel except for the starters for victory, but did not get a satisfactory result. The bullpen, which should have been blocked, failed to perform properly and collapsed, further accentuating the reality of bullpen anxiety.