Top starter available in bullpen for Wiz in KBO postseason elimination game

▲ KT Wiz manager Lee Kang-chul watches his team in action against the Doosan Bears in the top of the ninth inning of Game 2 of the Korea Baseball Organization second-round postseason series at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Nov. 9, 2020. (Yonhap)

▲ So Hyeong-jun of the KT Wiz pitches against the Doosan Bears in the top of the first inning of Game 1 of the Korea Baseball Organization second-round postseason series at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on Nov. 9, 2020. (Yonhap)

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Top starter available in bullpen for Wiz in KBO postseason elimination game

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) -- The KT Wiz have just avoided getting sent home from the South Korean baseball postseason, and they face another elimination game Friday against the Doosan Bears -- but with a potential game changer now available.

KT manager Lee Kang-chul, predictably, is all hands on deck, to the degree that his teenage No. 1 starter, So Hyeong-jun, will be ready to pitch in relief if necessary.

So fired 6 2/3 scoreless innings for a no-decision in a 3-2 loss in Game 1 of the best-of-five in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) on Monday. The Wiz lost the next game before battling back to win Game 3 Thursday.

With So having rested for three days, Lee said he doesn't want to lose the game and the series with his best arm on the bench.

"He's too good of an option not to use today," Lee said in his pregame media availability at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul. "This game will come down to the timing of our pitching changes."

Lee had already tried his hands at using a starter out of the bullpen. In Game 1, with the game still tied at 0-0 in the eighth, starter William Cuevas was brought in, but he was charged with two earned runs without getting out of that inning.

Cuevas didn't make any relief appearance during the regular season. So did it twice in October, and that experience made Lee's decision a bit easier.

"He has pitched in middle relief and he's feeling good," Lee said. "If (Game 4 starter) Bae Je-seong can give us three innings or so, I may just go ahead and bring in So Hyeong-jun. I will bear all the responsibility for whatever outcome we get from that."

Lee said, ideally, So would come in to start a new inning, instead of pitching with runners on base.

After scoring three runs combined in the first two losses, the Wiz exploded for five runs with two outs in the eighth in Thursday's victory.

Lee tried to downplay the effects of that big inning, saying it was already a day old and the Wiz are about to play a new game. But he held out hopes that players who had been struggling earlier would enter Friday's game feeling better about themselves.

"I am worried that the guys will now get too excited and start trying to do too much," the manager said. "We have our one win out of the way. I hope we can all relax and stay patient."


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