The KT Wiz have announced right-hander Ko Young-pyo as their starting pitcher for the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League against Lotte at Sajik Baseball Stadium in Busan on June 6. Ko is 3-3 with a 3.54 ERA in 10 appearances 안전놀이터 this season. He was removed from the game against KIA on March 30 (36 pitches in 2 innings) due to back pain, but is expected to pitch normally.
Lotte will be facing a “grim reaper. Since joining the team in 2014, Ko Young-pyo has started all seven games against Lotte, going 3-2 with a 1.08 ERA, including one complete game victory (June 11 last year). Of the nine teams he has faced so far, he has the lowest ERA. The next best team is the SSG Landers (2.25).
They’ve thrown 50 innings in seven games, averaging over seven innings per game. He had five quality starts (7+ innings and 3 earned runs or less). Lotte was one of the teams that utilized his strengths as a “groundballer” the most, with a 3.08 K/BB ratio. He has appeared twice this season, allowing one run in seven innings and one run in eight innings.
He wasn’t originally scheduled to start against Lotte. However, after KT’s game against Doosan on the 4th was rained out, the starting order was pushed back by one day and Ko Young-pyo had to start one more game later on the 6th against Lotte.
The key player against Ko was Rex, a foreign hitter who has been playing for Lotte since last year. Rex is 4-for-9 with a home run and four RBIs in his career against Ko. Han Dong-hee is the only player on the team with a home run against Ko in the last three years. He is 14-for-4 with a .286 batting average and .786 OPS in those three years. Jung Hoon is 9-for-3 and Jeon Jun-woo is 6-for-21 in the same period.
Last-place KT, but not out of the picture, sends right-hander Park Se-woong to the mound for Game 6. Park struggled in April, going 1-1 with a 5.12 ERA in four games, but rebounded last month with three wins and a 1.88 ERA in five starts. He has one earned run in five innings against KT this season.