This year’s professional baseball league, where the “Angry Tigers” are racing to the top spot with feverish performance in April, is also cruising by ranking second and third, chasing after Kia. NC and Samsung are ranking second and third.
NC had four wins and two losses in the “2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League” from the 23rd to the 28th, recording a winning rate of 667 percent along with KIA, Doosan, and KT. With 19 wins and 11 losses, NC ranked second by two games behind KIA (21 wins and nine losses).
Samsung performed even better. During the same period, Samsung recorded the highest winning percentage among the 10 teams with five wins and one loss. It is ranking third by one game against second-ranked NC and three games behind top-ranked KIA with 18 wins, 12 losses and one draw.
In particular, Samsung is showing strong performance. Samsung has recorded five wins and one loss for the past two consecutive weeks, surging into the top five. Until mid-April, Samsung remained in eighth place, but jumped to fifth place with five wins and one loss from the 16th to the 21st. It has risen to third place with five wins and one loss for two consecutive weeks.
This is because of his solid mound. The team recorded the ERA of 2.89 between Sunday and Sunday. He continued to throw an ironclad mound with ERA of 2.72 on the previous week.
Samsung had unstable bullpen session early in this season, but has been solidifying lately, leading the team’s advance. This year, Samsung’s ERA ranks third with 4.47, lower than the 4.82 average in the league. According to Staties, Samsung’s pitching staff WAR (contributing to victory versus substitute players) is 7.27, ranking second only to Kia (7.59) in the league.
In the six consecutive away games in Seoul, Samsung had two wins and one loss against LG, and swept three consecutive games against Kiwoom in the weekend. The batting average for the weekly team was also .302, in harmony with the mound.
NC is steadily threatening Kia’s No. 1 ranking. NC, which ended its away games against Doosan and Jamsil on weekdays with one win and two losses, invited its “Yeongnam rival” Lotte to its Changwon home ground over the weekend, and had a pleasant day off.
NCs mound was stronger than Samsungs. The daytime team ERA was just 2.60, the lowest among the 10 teams. This is why NC had a good performance despite his team batting average of 239.
Closing pitcher Lee Yong-chan made three saves last week alone to lock the back door. Kim Young-kyu showed off his strong bullpen session with three holds. Starting pitcher Kyle Hart showed off his powerful pitching of 10 strikeouts in seven innings against Lotte on Wednesday, while Lee Jae-hak tied Doosan with one run in seven innings on Wednesday.
NCs Team ERA is definitely No. 1 in this season with 3.42. This is the only ERA with three points, along with Kia (3.75), which ranks second. This is why NC is ranking second in this years seventh in the team`s batting average of .271 percent).
NC and Samsung are leading the league with the power of the mound just like the myth that baseball is about pitchers. It remains to be seen whether the recent upturn will continue through May beyond April.
BY: 토토