It’s not just that the NC Dinos are suffering from fatigue issues, as they played four more postseason games than the KT Wiz (Wild Card Decider and Games 1-3 of the semi-finals).
NC finished the regular season a week later than KT and had to play at full strength until the very end of the regular season due to fierce competition in the standings.
Players who had travelled to the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games also went straight into action without rest.
On the 10th of last month, KT was the first of the 10 clubs to complete the regular season, securing second place and a direct route to the Playoffs (PO).
NC’s final game of the regular season was a week later on the 17th against the KIA Tigers.
By the time NC played Doosan for the wild card on the 19th, KT had already had nine days of rest.
NC then defeated Doosan to advance to the PO stage through Games 1-3 of the semi-finals against SSG Landers.
While kt took 19 days off before the first round of the POs on the 30th, NC played five regular season games and four postseason games.
On top of that, NC was in a fierce battle for third place with SSG and Doosan, so they had to put their all into each and every game at the end of the regular season.
On 5 October, with nine games left to complete the regular season, NC lost six straight games to lose third place to Doosan and tie for fourth place with SSG.
Over the next 12 days, the three teams battled to gain an advantage in autumn baseball.
In the end, NC lost third place to SSG and played the first game of the postseason, the Wild Card Decision Game.
In this situation, infielder Kim Joo-won, catcher Kim Hyung-joon and left-handed pitcher Kim Young-kyu, who had returned from the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, were immediately enrolled in the first team after returning to Korea on 8 October.
Since returning, Kim has played 27 at-bats in seven games, Kim Hyung-jun has played 18 at-bats in six games, and Kim Young-gyu has pitched five innings in four games, facing 18 batters.
This is in contrast to KT bullpen Park Young-hyun, who also returned from Hangzhou, who was well-rested and only pitched in the season finale on the 10th.
It’s no wonder that NC suffered from extreme fatigue issues.
Young-gyu Kim suffered a velocity drop in Game 3 of the PO and was pulled after just ⅔ innings after giving up a home run. It was his first run in six postseason games.
Kim Joo-won played Game 4 with swollen eyes, while veterans Son As-seop and Park Geon-woo had large cupping marks visible on the broadcast.
Meanwhile, the dark clouds deepened when it was reported that ace Eric Peddie would not be able to start the fifth game on the fifth day due to poor physical condition. 스포츠토토사이트