Wiz ace Cuevas delivers another postseason gem, while counterpart falters again

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, Oct. 2 (Yonhap) -- KT Wiz ace William Cuevas lived up to his reputation as a big-game pitcher Wednesday, delivering a scoreless gem in a wild card game of the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) postseason against the Doosan Bears on Wednesday in Seoul.

Cuevas' counterpart, Gwak Been, failed to flip the narrative as a pitcher who can't get it done in high-stakes affairs.

The Wiz blanked the Bears 4-0 in the wild card game at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. With this victory, the fifth-seed Wiz forced another wild card contest against the fourth-seed Bears for Thursday.

The Bears only needed at least a tie Wednesday to advance to the next round but now face the possibility of becoming the first No. 4 seed to be eliminated in the wild card stage.

Based on their regular-season performances this year, Gwak seemed to have an edge over Cuevas. Gwak had been 5-0 with a 1.51 ERA against the Wiz, by far his lowest ERA against any team this season. Cuevas, on the other hand, was 1-2 with a 5.79 ERA against the Bears this year.

In their postseason careers, though, Cuevas had a better track record, with a 3-1 record, a 2.87 ERA and a Korean Series ring. Gwak had been 0-2 with a 6.00 ERA in five previous postseason outings.

And the trend held up for at least one more game for both pitchers.

The Wiz jumped on Gwak for four runs on five hits and a walk in the top of the first. Gwak gave up a leadoff walk and then allowed four consecutive singles, as the Wiz took a 3-0 lead before the Bears knew what hit them.

Gwak allowed another run-scoring hit later in the first and grabbed his head in frustration on his way back to the dugout. He was gone after allowing a walk to begin the second inning.

Cuevas gave up two straight singles to open the bottom first but escaped that jam. And he did not allow another hit over the next four innings while striking out seven batters.

Whether it was a cutter on the inside corner or a sharp slider, Bears hitters couldn't square up against Cuevas.

Cuevas saved his best moment for his final inning, the bottom of the sixth.

The Bears had runners at the corners with one out after two singles, and their two biggest boppers, Kim Jae-hwan and Yang Suk-hwan, were due up.

With the Bears crowd buzzing with excitement over a potential big inning, Cuevas froze Kim with a down-and-away slider for the second out. Cuevas then got Yang to whiff on a 1-2 cutter to end the Bears' rally.

Cuevas pumped his fist on the mound and let out a primal scream. On his way back to the dugout, he fired up the Wiz's fan section on the third base side, knowing he had more than done his job.

Cuevas threw 103 pitches, 72 for strikes. He attacked the Bears with five different types of pitches: four-seam fastball, slider, cutter, changeup and curveball.

Cuevas was an integral part of the Wiz's run to the Korean Series title in 2021. He famously threw seven shutout innings in a first-place tiebreaker game on two days' rest after the end of the regular season to send the Wiz to the Korean Series and then fired 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in the opening game of the championship round.

This was Cuevas' worst regular season of his KBO career spanning five-plus seasons, but in a win-or-go-home game Wednesday, the Venezuelan right-hander rose to the occasion.

jeeho@yna.co.kr
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