LG Twins pitcher Casey Kelly.
Casey Kelly (LG Twins) and Ko Young-pyo (KT Wiz) will be the starting pitchers for Game 1 of the Korean Series.
LG and KT held a media day for the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO Korean Series at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul on Saturday. LG manager Yoon Kyung-yeop and KT manager Lee Kang-chul announced Kelly and Ko Young-pyo as the starting pitchers for Game 1, which will be played at the same venue on Sunday.
LG called up Kelly, the only foreign pitcher left in the lineup after Adam Plutko was ruled out with a pelvic contusion.
Kelly is the KBO's longest-tenured foreign player, having been on the LG mound since 2019. He has consistently performed well in the KBO with a career record of 68 wins (38 losses) and a 3.08 ERA. This season, an up-and-down start put him in danger of being replaced, but he rebounded in the second half with a sub-2 ERA (2.90) in 12 games.
Kelly has been strong in the big games. In six postseason appearances, Kelly went 3-1 with a 2.23 ERA. LG went 5-1 in fall ball games with Kelly on the mound.
In four appearances against KT this season, Kelly is 1-1 with a 3.96 ERA. He was shaky in the first two games, giving up more than five runs in each, but he pitched seven shutout innings in the second two games.
KT Wiz pitcher Ko Young-pyo.
KT will send Young-pyo Ko, who pitched the reverse sweep in the playoffs, to the mound for Game 1.
Down two games to none in the playoffs, Ko took the mound in Game 3 and pitched six scoreless innings to help the team rally for Game 1. After turning the tide, KT went on to win Games 4 and 5 and achieved its third playoff 'win-loss-win-win' in history.
The comeback also had personal significance. Young-pyo Ko was 1-0 with a 7.71 ERA in the postseason until last year, when he was vulnerable in big games, 카지노사이트랭크 but he escaped that jinx.
Ko is KT's most consistent homegrown ace. Again this season, he posted double-digit wins (12-7) in 28 games while maintaining a sub-2 ERA (2.78). He has 21 quality starts (6+ innings or 3 earned runs or less), which is 75% of his starts.
Ko Young-pyo has made four starts against LG this season, going 2-2 with a 7.36 ERA. He had poor outings on May 18 and September 7, giving up eight runs (4⅔ innings) and six runs (6 innings), respectively. However, Ko Young-pyo shut down the LG bats on July 26 with seven innings of one-run ball. 섯다