▲ In this file photo from Sept. 12, 2021, Ko Young-pyo of the KT Wiz pitches against the SSG Landers during the top of the first inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. (Yonhap)
▲ In this file photo from Oct. 1, 2021, Ko Young-pyo of the KT Wiz pitches against the Lotte Giants in the bottom of the first inning of a Korea Baseball Organization regular season game at Sajik Stadium in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul. (Yonhap)

baseball-award

Stingy pitcher named KBO's top player for Sept.

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Oct. 8 (Yonhap) -- KT Wiz right-hander Ko Young-pyo has been named South Korean baseball's top player for September after allowing just one earned run for the entire month.

The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) announced Friday that Ko led seven candidates in fan and media voting for the Player of the Month award for September. Ko went 3-0 in four starts last month while surrendering one run in 33 1/3 innings for a miniscule ERA of 0.27, by far the lowest in the league in that span.

Ko earned 26 out of 31 votes cast by baseball writers, and had 163,114 out of 331,554 votes from fans.

On Sept. 12 versus the SSG Landers, Ko threw KBO's first complete game shutout without a walk this season.

Ko is fifth overall this season with a 2.81 ERA while sporting an 11-4 record. The 30-year-old has so far pitched a career-high 144 1/3 innings.

Ko came into this season with a career ERA of 5.26, and his previous career low for a single season was 5.08 from the 2017 season.

Behind Ko's excellent pitching, the Wiz are sitting pretty at the top of the standings with a 70-49-7 (wins-losses-ties) record, three games ahead of the Samsung Lions with 18 games to play.

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[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]