Wes Benjamin (29, kt wiz), a “conversion card” presented by kt wiz this fall, will start as a starter in the second round of the semi-playoffs (quasi-PO).
Kiwoom Heroes has predicted Eric Yokishi (33), who is in the fourth year of the KBO League, as a starter in the second round.
In the first round of the semi-OP, both teams, who had joined native holders (Kiwoom Ahn Woo-jin, KT Eom Sang-baek), led a left-handed foreign pitcher in the second game.
Benjamin, who has been playing since June as a replacement for William Cuevas, and Yokishi, who has been in the KBO league since 2019, will also appear with the aim of winning his first postseason.
In the wild card game against the KIA Tigers held on the 13th, Benjamin appeared in the 8th inning with a slight 3-2 lead and knocked out Socrates Brito, Hyungwoo Choi and Seonbin Kim in a row, making his post-season debut in the KBO League in a refreshing way.
Thanks to Benjamin’s 3 strikeouts in the 8th, kt defeated KIA 6-2 and advanced to semi-OP.
KT manager Lee Kang-cheol has returned Benjamin to his original starting position from Jun-PO.
Benjamin, who has been shooting well with a 5-4 ERA of 2.70 this season, fared better when he met Kiwoom.
Benjamin’s record against Kiwoom was 4 games, 2 wins and an ERA of 0.78 (12 wins in 23 innings, 4 points and 2 points earned).
In the regular season, Benjamin gave up a home run against Hye-Sung Kim (2 of 6 hits at bat) and wrestled with Jeong-hoo Lee (3 hits to 9 at bat).
However, other Kiwoom hitters like Yasiel Puig (2 hits on 10 at-bats), Kim Jun-wan (no hits on 5 at-bats) and Lee Ji-young (1 hit on 6 at-bats) blocked well.
Benjamin’s strong fight is in desperate need of kt, who lost the first match in the semi-OP by 3 out of 5 wins.
Yokishi is a foreign ace with 51 wins (33 losses) in the KBO championship in 4 seasons (2019-2022).
Again this year, he played as a one-two between Ahn Woo-jin and Kiwoom with an ERA of 2.57 with 10 wins and 8 losses.
However, the postseason has not yet been won.
Yokishi appeared in three post-season matches on his own in 2019 and struggled with an ERA of 5.73 (11 runs, 21 hits, 10 runs, and 7 runs earned) without winning or losing.
Manager Hong Won-ki, who won the first game with Ahn Woo-jin, decided to start the second as Yokishi.
Yokishi has been very strong this year against kt, with 3 wins and 1 ERA of 0.44 (16 wins and 1 run in 20 ⅓ innings).
This season, Yokishi has equalized KT’s top hitters, such as Park Byeong-ho (1 hit on 9 at-bats) and Kang Baek-ho (no hit on 5 at-bats).
In the match against kt, he didn’t concede a single home run.
/ yunhap news
