For pitchers, “wins” are not a metric that can be recorded solely on their own. No matter how well they pitch, they still need to score runs to be considered a ‘winner’.
As sabermetrics have evolved, wins have become less and less important, but they still mean a lot. Pitchers themselves become conscious if they repeatedly fail to pitch well and accumulate wins, which eventually leads to mental pressure.스포츠토토
In the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, which has been running for 30 days now, there are some pitchers who are not getting much support from the batting order. Ahn Woo-jin (24-Keum Heroes) and Koo Chang-mo (26-NC Dinos), who are the homegrown aces of their teams and are often referred to as the ‘Young Guns’ of the league.
After becoming one of the league’s leading starters last year, Ahn has continued his momentum this season. In 10 games so far, he has pitched 62⅓ innings with a 1.88 ERA and 81 strikeouts. Her innings pitched and ERA are second in the league, and her strikeouts are first.
However, he only has three wins and three losses. That’s because her batters couldn’t score runs.
In games where Ahn has pitched, the Kiwoom bats have scored less than three runs, with an OPS of 2.89. This is the third-lowest run support among the 28 pitchers who pitched in regulation.
Only Choi Won-jun (Doosan Bears – 1.96) and Bo Schuler (KT Wiz – 2.72) had less run support than Ahn. However, their ERAs are 4.30 (Choi) and 5.62 (Schuler), so it’s hard to blame their batsmen.
Ahn hasn’t been helped by the bullpen either. Three times already in his 10 starts this season, the bullpen has allowed the tying run to score and blow the game, making him the only pitcher in the league with three “bullpen fires”.
Kiwoom has struggled this season as the batting line-up as a whole has slumped. Aside from Ahn, other pitchers have also had their fair share of disappointing outings.
Kiwoom’s other starters, Choi Won-tae, has only managed 3.02 runs per game, while Ariel Hurtado has received 3.26 runs of run support. With the fourth and fifth lowest ‘salty support’ in the league, Choi is 3-3 with a 3.32 ERA, while Hurado is 3-6 with a 2.97 ERA.
Koo Chang-mo has pitched well in eight games so far, throwing 46⅔ innings with a 3.28 ERA, but only one win and three losses.
After struggling in his first two games, Koo has since rebounded, but hasn’t received much offensive support.
Despite pitching 8⅔ scoreless innings against the SSG Landers on 15 April, Koo was unable to pick up a win as his batting average was ‘0’. Against the KIA Tigers on 27 April, he was ‘perfect’ until the top of the sixth inning, but with no batting support, the game was tied 0-0 before collapsing due to massive runs.
At this point, you might think that Ahn’s case is similar to Woo-jin’s, but there is a subtle difference. It’s the team batting order.
While Ahn’s team Kiwoom is ranked 8th with a team batting average of 0.247, Goo Chang-mo’s NC is ranked 2nd with a team batting average of 0.268 and 5th in team runs scored, which is not bad.
Koo’s woes are best explained by his NC teammate, Eric Peddy. Peddy has been the best pitcher in the league so far with a 1.47 ERA, but he’s also had a lot of support from his bats.
In his 10 starts, the offence has scored an average of 9.25 runs per game, second only to Wes Benjamin (KT Wiz – 10.08). In three games already, the game was decided by a big inning before the fifth inning – against KT on the 9th (16-4), Samsung Lions on the 20th (14-3), and Hanwha Eagles on the 26th (11-0).
With only one-third of the support that Pedi received, Koo Chang-mo might be feeling a little resentful of his Gymjit teammates.