From the starting pitching to the batting explosion, everything clicked. The KT Wiz continued its upward trend on the road in Gwangju, extending its winning streak to four games.
KT won 10-3 against the KIA Tigers of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Gwangju-KIA Champions Field on April 23 to improve to 30-2, 34 (.469) on the season.
On the mound, William Cuevas pitched six innings of four-hit ball, striking out six and walking one to earn his first win since returning to the KBO.
It didn’t start out well. Cuevas gave up a leadoff single to Kim Do-young and a stolen base in the first inning before giving up a single to Lee Woo-sung with runners on first and second. 메이저놀이터
But Cuevas settled down in the second and retired the side in order in the third and fourth innings. In the bottom of the fourth, the right-hander struck out the trio of Choi Hyung-woo, Na Sung-beom, and Socrates Brito on six pitches to conserve his pitch count.
After failing to complete five innings in his previous outing, Cuevas was on the mound for the fifth and sixth innings, completing his mission with a Quality Start (QS). It was a flawless performance, both in terms of content and outcome.
The hitters also helped Cuevas in the win.
It started with a home run by “veteran” Hwang Jae-gyun. In the top of the second inning, Hwang pulled a five-pitch fastball from KIA starter Hwang Dong-ha for his first archer of the season, tying the game at 1-1. The next batter, Choi Jae-dae, walked and came home on Ahn Chi-young’s double in the second inning to give his team the lead. Park Chan-ho, who pitched hard for the home run, was wide of the mark.
In the bottom of the third, Hwang Jae-gyun hit a two-run double, and in the top of the fifth, Jang Sung-woo hit a two-run double and Ahn Chi-young hit a two-run single to drive in a run. RBI singles by Oh Yoon-seok in the eighth and Moon Sang-chul in the ninth completed the double-digit scoring.
While the entire KT lineup got hits on the day, the bottom of the order was more impressive than the center of the lineup.