바카라“Our pitching is the best in the team right now.”
Speaking about the synergy between set-up man Park Young-hyun (20)-reliever Kim Jae-yoon (33), who has been classified as the league’s best closer this season, KT Wiz manager Lee Kang-cheol said, “In front of (Kim) Jae-yoon is (Park) Young-hyun, and if Young-hyun cleans up the seventh or eighth inning, Jae-yoon can pitch in a relatively more comfortable situation. That’s why it’s very rare for Jae-yoon to pitch multiple innings. It’s good for her to close out the innings and hand over (the baton) to Young-hyun.”
The duo are also on pace for career highs in terms of individual performances, each reaching double-digit hold-saves early. Prior to today’s game, Kim had 12 saves and a 1.17 ERA, and Park had 14 holds and a 1.98 ERA. Park, who was drafted as a first-round pick last year, has shrugged off the “sophomore jinx” and is on track to make his first career All-Star Game appearance.
It’s their fastballs that have caught Lee’s eye. According to Sports2eye, the KBO’s official record-keeping statistician, Park’s fastball averages 144.3 kilometres per hour, the fastest on the team except for Kim Min (145.3), who is currently out of the first team roster. Kim Jae-yoon, at 141.7 kilometres per hour (12th), is not among the top players on the team, but he has the same movement as Young-hyun. Park’s up and down movement is 32.4 cm, while Kim’s is 30.9 cm.
This is a favourable condition for high-fast balls. “I think they have the best movement in the team,” Lee said. “It looks like that to my eyes, but the machine also shows good numbers. Pitchers with good up-and-down movement on their fastballs are able to induce fouls and hits when they throw high fastballs. When you’re trying to get a strike, it’s the same thing, you don’t want to throw it low and get it, you want to get the hitter to foul it off, so you can get away with it.”