There is no sinking for Korea’s best submarine pitcher.
Ko Young-pyo (32, KT Wiz) started as a starter in the NC Dinos game of the ‘2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League’ held at NC Dinos Park in Changwon on the 13th.
Ko Young-pyo, who had been shaky with 12 runs in 11 innings and an ERA of 9.81 in the last two games, seemed to continue that negative trend in today’s game as well. In the bottom of the first inning, which was his first inning, he hit consecutive doubles to opposing table setters Son Ah-seop and Park Min-woo, giving him the lead at 0-1.
It was a similar situation in the bottom of the third inning. After a hit to right field by leadoff hitter Son Ah-seop, he allowed a stolen base, and he gave Park Min-woo an infield hit to shortstop, allowing first and second base with no outs. It was clearly a crisis, but Ko Young-pyo used his main weapon, a change-up, to prevent additional runs by turning around the opponent’s 3rd to 5th main batters, Park Geon-woo (swing strikeout), Jason Martin (swing strikeout), and Kwon Hee-dong (shortstop ground ball).
Although the team was ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the 4th inning, with one out and 3rd base, Kim Hyeong-jun allowed an RBI and timely hit to tie the score at 2-2, he pitched well without allowing any runs and ended the game that day. Final performance was 6 innings, allowing 9 hits, 1 walk, 7 strikeouts, and 2 runs. He laid the foundation for the team’s 6-2 victory, earning 11 wins (7 losses) on the season.
Go Young-pyo is the league’s leading submarine pitcher. He has appeared in 25 games this year and is continuing his strong performance with 11 wins, 7 losses, 156⅔ innings, and an ERA of 2.99. He is tied for the most wins as a domestic pitcher this year along with Lim Chan-gyu (31, LG Twins).
In particular, Ko Young-pyo recorded a monthly ERA of 1.30 (4 runs in 27⅔ innings) in July and 1.55 (6 runs, 5 earned runs in 29 innings) last month, showing impressive pitching enough to be considered a candidate for the league’s monthly MVP in August.
However, because Go Young-pyo is only human, he seems to have lost some pace in the second half of the season. Starting with the Gocheok Kiwoom Heroes game on the 1st, he recorded 9 hits (1 home run) and 6 runs in 5 innings against the Suwon LG Twins, and 10 hits (1 home run) and 6 runs in 6 innings. This is the first two consecutive games this year where six goals have been conceded. As he appears to be on pace to surpass last year’s record (28 games, 182⅓ innings), when he had the most appearances and innings in a single season, he is getting tired little by little without realizing it.스포츠토토
Still, Go Young-pyo is Go Young-pyo. Even in the third game of the month, against Changwon NC on the 13th, he was not as perfect as when he showed good condition, but as an ace, he gave the team victory. Above all, even when his condition was not good, he persevered and played an inning, blocking the NC batting line that was trying to bring down KT right below him. It was a first win at a time when it was more important to the team than ever.
Ko Young-pyo recently said, “I am in a battle with NC for second place, and it feels good to be able to win. Although there were more hits, I tried to minimize the number of runs conceded. (In the second half of the game) I tried to regain the form I had when my performance was good this season.” revealed.
He continued, “I feel like I can’t fake innings (I’m getting tired). A season is coming to an end, and when my cycle goes down, the opponent goes up. It would be nice if I do well throughout the season, but I think there are times when I feel down,” he said, looking forward to the rest of the season. I pledged to do better.
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