NC Dinos pitcher Kim Young-gyu (23) has been the hottest pitcher this fall.
After finishing the regular season in fourth place, he was instrumental in NC's run to the Wild Card Game (WC) against the Doosan Bears and a best-of-three semi-playoff series against the SSG Landers.
As a reliever, Kim did his part in the NCs, where the starting mound wasn't very strong, by shutting down opposing batters with his steady pitching. In the Semifinals, he appeared in all three games and pitched 3⅔ innings of scoreless baseball with one hit, two walks, and one strikeout, and was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the series.
With Kim in the playoffs (5-3 in PO), NC will face KT Wiz on April 30 for a ticket to the Korean Series (7-4 in KS).
KT also has a must-win setup man. This is Park Young-hyun (20), who won the Hold King this year.
He is a rookie pitcher who joined the team last year, but his dominant pitching surpasses his 'experience'.
In his debut season last year, he set a new KBO record for the youngest save (19 years and 6 days old) by pitching two innings of one-hit, no-strikeout relief in the second game of the semi-preseason against the Kiwoom Heroes, proving that he is strong in big games.
In the regular season this year, he appeared in 68 games, posting a 3-3 record with 32 saves and a 2.75 ERA.
Together, Kim Young-gyu and Park Young-hyun made the Korean National Baseball Team for the Hangzhou 2022 Asian Games, which concluded earlier this month. For the first time, they shared a gold medal under the Korean flag.
While playing baseball this fall, Kim often thought back to the Asian Games. "I felt like I could hide (the pressure) one game at a time," he said, "and I think that experience has served me well since coming to Korea." "I think winning the gold medal has given me good energy," he added.
Park Young-hyun was also a standout for the team in the top flight. She pitched in four of the team's six games, tossing 5⅓ scoreless innings of relief.
Coming in with gold medal energy, their matchup will be one to watch in the POs. Both Park Young-hyun and Kim Young-kyu will need to be their team's calling cards, and their performances could make or break the game.
Park has made 10 appearances in the NC this year, going 2-0 with a 0.79 ERA in six starts. In 11⅓ innings pitched, she allowed seven hits and one walk while striking out 15. He allowed only one earned run.
In seven games against KT, Young-gyu Kim pitched five innings with three strikeouts and one walk, giving up three runs and two earned, leaving him with a 3.60 ERA. Although he pitched in all four of NC's fall games this year, the fact that the team ended the semifinals in three games and got plenty of rest is a weight off his shoulders. 스포츠토토맨
