Even the league’s best pitcher, Ahn Woo-jin (Kiwoom), has a problem. It’s a lack of wins to go along with his stellar performance.안전놀이터
In 14 games this season, Ahn has pitched 89.1 innings and posted a league-low 1.61 ERA, and was the first pitcher to reach the 100-strikeout plateau. This is the second year in a row that he’s thrown strikes and made hitters struggle.
The problem is the wins. Halfway through the season, the team has only managed five wins (four losses). It’s a mystery, considering that the pitching has improved from last year, when he won 15 games.
It’s not like he’s been pitching erratically. Ahn has thrown a whopping 11 of his 14 starts as quality starts (six or more innings and three runs or less), and half of his starts, seven, have been quality starts plus (seven or more innings and two runs or less).
Of course, there is cause and effect.
There are two main reasons why Ahn hasn’t gotten many wins despite pitching like a champ. They are poor batting support and bullpen fire.
First, the Kiwoom offense only supports 3.02 runs when Ahn is on the mound. This is surprisingly the lowest run support of all starting pitchers.
Considering that NC Peddie, who has the same 1-run ERA, has won 10 games (1 loss) with a whopping 9.33 run support, and LG Plutko has also won double digits with a generous 5.67 run support from his bats, it’s easy to feel sorry for Ahn.
The number of times the bullpen has blown a game when they’ve been called upon to pitch the winning run is also four, the most in the league, meaning that if not for the bullpen conflagration, they could have at least reached nine wins instead of five.
Despite this, Ahn remains silent. Instead, he’s trying to change his pitching patterns to get himself and his team a win.
He pitched a season-high eight innings for Samsung Electronics on the 22nd, striking out just three batters in the process, and he’s been focusing on perfecting his pitches to go the distance.
Ahn will make his 15th start of the season against KIA on April 28. Ahn hasn’t had much fun against KIA in his career, going 5-4 with a 4.24 ERA. However, last year, when he evolved into a specialist, it was a different story, as he went 2-1 with a 2.25 ERA in three games. It will be interesting to see if Ahn can pick up as many wins as possible before the end of the first half.