KT Wiz foreign pitcher Wes Benjamin picked up the win against Hanwha Eagles pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin.
Benjamin started KT’s game against Hanwha at KT Wiz Park in Suwon on April 24 and threw 99 pitches over eight innings, allowing just two hits, one walk, 11 strikeouts, and one earned run for his third win of the season. KT won 7-1.
Benjamin tied a career-high for innings pitched in a game (8), tied a career-high for strikeouts in a game (11), and pitched eight innings for the second straight game.
It was a revenge game for Benjamin against Hanwha. Benjamin was the losing pitcher in the March 31 game against Hanwha in Daejeon, giving up 11 runs on 11 hits in three innings. On his home field, he got his revenge.
Benjamin gave up a solo home run in the first inning, but retired the next 14 batters in a row until the eighth inning.
With one out in the first, he hit a 150-mph fastball to Peraza for a solo home run over the center field fence. He called for a high fastball, but it went right down the middle.
In the second inning, Benjamin got Kim Tae-yeon to ground out to shortstop, struck out Ahn Chi-hong on a 129-kilometer slider and Kim Kang-min on a 148-kilometer fastball. Two batters later in the inning, he struck out Lee Jin-young on a swinging strike with a 147-kilometer fastball.
In the top of the fourth, he got Peraza, who gave up a home run earlier in the inning, to swing and miss with a slider and curveball on a one-pitch, one-strike count. Noh struck out the next batter, Chae Eun-sung, on a 146-kilometer fastball to right field. In the fifth, he struck out the leadoff batter, Kim Tae-yeon, on three pitches, got Ahn Chi-hong to ground out to first base and Kim Kang-min to fly out to right field to end the inning.
In the sixth inning, Lee Jae-won singled to center. He then fouled off a wild pitch against Hwang Young-mook and walked him straight up the middle to put runners on first and second with no outs. Lee induced a grounder to the third baseman to put runners at second and third with two outs. With two on and one out, he struck out Peraza on a 125-mph slider to end the inning.
In the seventh, Noh grounded out to second base, Chae Eun-sung flied out to third base, and Lee struck out Do-yoon Lee on three pitches with a 124-kilometer curveball. In the eighth, he struck out Ahn Chi-hong on a 144-kilometer fastball, Kim Kang-min on a grounder to shortstop, and Park Sang-un on a swinging strikeout with a 147-kilometer fastball.
After the match, Benjamin was happy to get revenge against Hanwha after 24 days. “I thought about it a bit before I faced Hanwha again today. I played so badly that day. A bad result can give you a lot of motivation to do well later on, and I think the hard work and planning that I did before I faced Hanwha paid off today with a good performance, so I’m happy that it paid off,” Benjamin said.
He started off the game with a home run off Peraza in the first inning, which must have been nerve-wracking as it reminded him of his last outing.
“When I got hit by the home run early in the game, I realized that the Hanwha hitters were timing their fastballs really well. I thought I had to change the game plan a little bit quickly, and (Chang) Sung-woo caught it quickly and changed the game plan 토토사이트 quickly. I also want to thank Sung-woo for his good performance, not only defensively but also offensively (three hits), so I want to thank him for that. Changing the game plan early in the game worked out well.”
After a rough start to the season, the right-hander has quickly returned to his consistent pitching. Prior to this game, he had a 0.90 ERA in three games in April.
“I lowered my arm height a little bit from spring training to the beginning of the season, but after the Hanwha game, I realized that mechanically, I needed to raise my arm height again like I did last season. Once I raised my arm height, my fastball vertical movement improved. It’s been paying off for me so far,” he said.
The lowered arm height in camp was due to restraints. “I lowered my arm height because my velocity is faster with a lower arm height, and I had some neck injuries at the end of last season, and lowering my arm height took a little bit of pressure off my neck, so that was my goal in the offseason,” Benjamin explained.
He also relieved pressure on the bullpen by going eight innings in two straight games. After pitching eight innings of one-hit ball with two walks and six strikeouts against Kiwoom on April 18, he pitched eight innings of two-hit ball with one walk and 11 strikeouts.
“I was a little bit more proud of today’s game because I had something to get revenge for, so I was proud that I was able to do it,” Benjamin said when asked which game he liked better.