▲ In this file photo from April 30, 2021, Won Tae-in of the Samsung Lions smiles on the mound during the top of the seventh inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game against the LG Twins at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)
▲ In this file photo from April 24, 2021, Won Tae-in of the Samsung Lions pitches against the Kia Tigers in the bottom of the fifth inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Gwangju-Kia Champions Field in Gwangju, 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

baseball-award

Lions' pitcher Won Tae-in voted KBO's top player for April

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, May 10 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Lions' right-hander Won Tae-in has been named the best player in South Korean baseball for the first month of the season.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Monday that Won was voted the Player of the Month for April in a landslide. He earned 31 out of 32 votes from the media and garnered 209,486 votes out of 353,764 cast by fans.

Won scored 78.05 points converted from those vote totals to lead eight candidates, with the KT Wiz's slugger Kang Baek-ho finishing a distant second with 5.47 points. Kang had the one other media vote and had 27,678 votes from fans.

Won, 21, led all pitchers in April with a 1.16 ERA, and tied his teammate David Buchanan for most wins with four. Won struck out 36 batters last month, ranking second overall behind Andrew Suarez of the LG Twins.

Behind Won's breakout performance, the Lions have roared to first place at 19-12, despite starting the season on a four-game losing slide. The Lions boast the KBO's lowest ERA (3.65), most strikeouts (248) and fewest walks (115). They have enjoyed five shutout victories to lead the league.

Won recorded 10 strikeouts in back-to-back starts on April 13 and 18, the first time a KBO pitcher struck out at least 10 batters in consecutive starts in seven years.

Won threw seven innings of one-run ball in his first start of May last Friday. He is 5-1 with a 1.18 ERA for the season.

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