KIA, seeking four consecutive wins, is preparing for its 14th showdown of the season against Samsung at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu. However, Samsung’s starter Widener, who has a reputation as a tiger hunter this season, should be targeted.
KIA will play against Samsung in the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League at Samsung Lions Park in Daegu on the 12th. He will face Widener as a starter with foreign starter Panoni.
KIA’s pace is quite good. In particular, he achieved a great achievement by recording three wins and one loss in four consecutive weekend games against the No. 1 team LG. 스포츠토토
At the center was the batting line. During the winning streak, he was the league’s overall No. 1 player with a team batting average of 0.387 and OPS of 0.983. The scoring average was also 0.386, the second-best after kt (0.455). Most of the KIA’s main players, including Kim Sun-bin (0.667 batting average), Lee Chang-jin (0.556) and Na Sung-bum (0.500 batting average), swung hard.
In order for KIA to win four consecutive games and move to the top, starter Panoni must hold out to some extent. Panoni has four wins, one loss and a 2.81 ERA in nine games this season. In the recent appearance against Doosan on the 6th, he pitched six scoreless innings and won four games of the season.
Against Samsung, he has one start this season. On July 12, he allowed two runs (two earned runs) in four innings in Gwangju and stepped down without winning or losing.
Panoni’s role is not the only thing that matters. The key to KIA’s batting lineup is also how much Samsung’s foreign starter Widener will be targeted.
Widener is 5-4 with a 4.70 ERA in 15 games this season. In the recent game against Lotte on the 6th, he scored two runs (two earned runs) in 5.1 innings and stepped down without winning or losing.
He played twice against KIA this season and showed a strong performance with a 2.25 ERA with two wins and no losses. He also pitched QS pitches with four runs (three earned runs) in six innings and no runs in six innings.
It is true that the KIA batters fired up during the three consecutive wins, but against Widener, the KIA batters suffered from empty balls. It is true that key hitters such as Choi Hyung-woo (1 hit in 6 at-bats) and Na Sung-bum (3 at-bats) struggled. Park Chan-ho (two hits in five at-bats), Kim Do-young (one hit in three at-bats), Lee Woo-sung (one hit in three at-bats), and Kim Kyu-sung (one hit in two at-bats) did well against Widener.
Will KIA be able to continue its upward trend by beating its natural enemy, Widener. KIA’s harmony of pitching and hitting balance is more important than ever.