Wes Benjamin (29, kt wiz), a ‘conversion card’ presented by kt wiz this fall, will start as a starter in the second round of the semi-playoff (quasi-PO).
Kiwoom Heroes predicted Eric Yokishi (33), who is in the fourth year of the KBO League, as a starter in the second round.
In the first round of the semi-PO, both teams, which had native starters (Kiwoom Ahn Woo-jin, KT Eom Sang-baek) side by side, put a left-handed foreign pitcher ahead in the second game.
Benjamin, who has been playing since June as a replacement for William Cuevas, and Yokishi, who has been in the KBO league since 2019, will also appear with the goal of winning his first postseason.
In the wild card game against the KIA Tigers held on the 13th, Benjamin appeared in the 8th inning with a slight lead 3-2 and struck out Socrates Brito, Hyungwoo Choi, and Seonbin Kim in a row, making his KBO League postseason debut in a refreshing way.
Thanks to Benjamin’s 3 strikeouts in the 8th, kt defeated KIA 6-2 and advanced to the semi-PO.
KT manager Lee Kang-cheol returned Benjamin to his original starting position from Jun-PO.
Benjamin, who threw well with a 5-4 ERA of 2.70 this season, performed better when he met Kiwoom.
Benjamin’s record against Kiwoom was 4 games, 2 wins, and an ERA of 0.78 (12 hits in 23 innings, 4 runs and 2 earned runs).
In the regular season, Benjamin gave up one home run to Hye-Sung Kim (2 hits at 6 at-bat) and struggled with Jeong-hoo Lee (3 hits at 9 at-bat).
However, other Kiwoom batters such as Yasiel Puig (2 hits in 10 at-bats), Kim Jun-wan (no hits in 5 at-bats), and Lee Ji-young (1 hit in 6 at-bats) blocked well.
Benjamin’s strong fight is desperately needed for kt, who lost the first game in the semi-PO of 3 wins out of 5.
Yokishi is a foreign ace with 51 wins (33 losses) in the KBO league over 4 seasons (2019-2022).
Again this year, he played as a one-two punch between Ahn Woo-jin and Kiwoom with an ERA of 2.57 with 10 wins and 8 losses.
However, the postseason has not yet been won.
Yokishi appeared in three postseason games in 2019 alone and struggled with an ERA of 5.73 (11 runs, 21 hits, 10 runs and 7 earned runs) without winning or losing.
Manager Hong Won-ki, who won the first game with Ahn Woo-jin, decided to start the second game as Yokishi.
Yokishi was very strong this year against kt, with 3 wins and 1 ERA of 0.44 (16 hits and 1 run in 20 ⅓ innings).
This season, Yokishi tied KT’s key hitters, such as Park Byeong-ho (1 hit in 9 at-bats) and Kang Baek-ho (no hits in 5 at-bats).
In the match against kt, he did not allow a single home run.
/yunhap news