SEOUL, Two of the top starters in South Korean baseball this year will toe the rubber to open their teams' postseason series Monday.
The NC Dinos announced Sunday that right-hander Erick Fedde will start Game 1 of the second round of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason against the KT Wiz.
The Wiz will counter with their own right-handed ace, William Cuevas. The first pitch is at 6:30 p.m. Monday at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, south of Seoul, with the second-seed Wiz holding the home field advantage over the No. 4 seed Dinos in their best-of-five series.
Fedde, fresh off a Triple Crown-winning regular season, will make his long-awaited KBO postseason debut. In his final regular season start Oct. 16, Fedde was struck in the right arm by a batted ball, and the injury kept him out of the Dinos' first four postseason games so far. The American pitcher was a late scratch for Game 3 of the previous round against the SSG Landers last Wednesday.
The Dinos won all four games despite not having Fedde, who led the KBO with 20 wins, 209 strikeouts and a 2.00 ERA to become the first foreign pitcher to capture the Triple Crown. Fedde has been cleared to go after his latest bullpen session Friday.
Fedde went 1-2 with a 2.65 ERA in three regular season starts against the Wiz.
Cuevas rejoined the Wiz for his second tour of duty in June this year, after first pitching for them from 2019 to early 2022. The Venezuelan starter went a perfect 12-0 in 18 starts this year and recorded a 2.60 ERA across 114 1/3 innings.
He played an integral role in the Wiz's run to their first Korean Series title in 2021. Cuevas threw seven shutout innings in the Wiz's tiebreaker game against the Samsung Lions on two days' rest, giving his club a bye to the Korean Series. And in Game 1 of the championship round against the Doosan Bears, Cuevas threw 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball for the win.
Cuevas didn't get a decision in his lone start against the Dinos on June 30, when he allowed two runs in six innings.
After the Wiz's practice Sunday, Cuevas voiced confidence that he could get the better of the Dinos in Game 1.
"I am confident against another pitcher. I did pretty well in the season, too," Cuevas said.
Cuevas will have his hands full against the top three hitters in the Dinos' lineup: leadoff Son Ah-seop, No. 2 hitter Park Min-woo and No. 3 hitter Park Kun-woo are ranked third, fourth and second, respectively, in career batting average among all active hitters with at least 3,000 plate appearances.
When Wiz manager Lee Kang-chul, assuming the role of a reporter in the dugout, asked Cuevas what his game plan was against the trio, the pitcher played along.
"They know I have the best pitches in the league," Cuevas said with a smile. "They should be scared."
In the 32 previous editions of the best-of-five second round, the Game 1 winners have gone on to take the series 25 times, or about 78 percent of the time.
Source: Yonhap News Agency