The first button must be sewn well. Whether it is the home team or the away team, the opening game is meaningful. So, the best aces from each team were selected as the starters for the opening match.
All matchups for the opening match have been confirmed. In Jamsil, Dan Strayley (Lotte) and Raul Alcantara (Doosan). In Literature, Sean Anderson (KIA)-Kwang-Hyun Kim (SSG), in Daegu, Eric Peddy (NC)-David Buchanan (Samsung), in Suwon, Casey Kelly (LG)-Wes Benjamin (KT), in Gocheok, Birch Smith (Hanwha)-Ahn Woo-jin (Kiwoom) will be the starting pitcher.
There are only two domestic players, Kim Gwang-hyun and An Woo-jin, the best left and right pitchers in the KBO, and the other 8 are all foreign players. Anderson, Peddy, and Smith, who started as new foreign players, showed impressive pitching in the demonstration game, but it is still unknown how they will perform in the regular league.
On the other hand, the other five foreign players with KBO league experience, including Kim Gwang-hyun and An Woo-jin, are sure to be one-punch of the team. Among them, 6 of them, excluding Benjamin, have experience as a starter in the opening game of the KBO League. Strangely, however, no pitcher has ever won the opening game.
Kim Gwang-hyun was selected for the opening match for the 4th time in 4 years since 2019. After playing in the Major League St. Louis for two years, he returned to the domestic stage last year and recorded 13 wins, 3 losses, and an ERA of 2.13 in 28 games, and is the best left-handed pitcher in Korea who led SSG to a combined championship. 메이저놀이터
Kim Gwang-hyun, who joined SK Wyverns (predecessor of SSG) in 2007, received his first selection in the opening game against Nexen (currently Kiwoom) in the Munhak home game on March 29, 2014, in his 8th year. He suffered his first loss with 5 hits, 3 walks and 4 runs (3 earned runs) in 5 innings.
And two years later, on April 1, 2016, as a starter for the opening game against Munhak kt, Kim Yeon-hoon and Yoon Yo-seop, who once ate a pot of rice, allowed 2 home runs, 4 ⅔ innings, 9 hits (2 home runs), 3 walks, 4 strikeouts and 7 runs. suffered a defeat
Even in 2019, when he was the 3rd starter, he could not establish a relationship with Seungri. This time, it was also a literary kt exhibition. He gave up 8 hits (1 home run), 3 walks, 7 strikeouts and 4 runs in 6 innings. Fortunately, he escaped defeat.
So far, ERA 8.04 (15 runs, 14 earned runs in 15⅔ innings) with 2 losses without a win in 3 opening games. For Kim Gwang-hyun, who has 149 wins, one less than 1 win in his career, and an average ERA of only 3.17, it is strange that he has no wins in the opening game and an ERA that is more than twice as high.