SEOUL-- Pitching on only two days' rest after throwing 108 pitches, KT Wiz right-hander William Cuevas gave his team more than anyone could have reasonably hoped for on Sunday.
In what can only be described as a gutsy performance, the Venezuelan ace pitched seven innings of one-hit ball to lift the Wiz to a 1-0 victory over the Samsung Lions in a Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) tiebreaker game on Sunday.
Riding Cuevas' shoulders at Daegu Samsung Lions Park in Daegu, some 300 kilometers southeast of Seoul, the Wiz captured their first regular season title and punched a ticket to the Korean Series for the first time in their seventh KBO season.
Cuevas only allowed an infield single by Oh Jae-il in the fourth inning and struck out eight. Kang Baek-ho's RBI single in the sixth provided the only run of a well-pitched game.
Cuevas had started on Thursday against the NC Dinos. But with first place and a bye to the Korean Series at stake, the Wiz turned to him once again. In a pregame interview, manager Lee Kang-chul admitted he wasn't expecting a long outing from Cuevas, saying he only needed the pitcher to hold down the fort in the first couple of innings.
The game began inauspiciously for Cuevas, who walked the leadoff man Park Hae-min. But Cuevas settled down to retire Koo Ja-wook on a flyout. He struck out Oh on a curveball and then Park was thrown out trying to steal second on the play.
And the Lions barely touched him the rest of the way. Cuevas struck out two batters in a clean second inning, and two more in another three-up, three-down inning in the third.
Oh's two-out infield hit amounted to nothing in the fourth. Cuevas then sat down six straight batters in the fifth and sixth innings.
Cuevas got into a jam in the seventh, on the combination of some shaky control and shoddy defense.
Cuevas walked Koo to begin the inning. Oh then sent a flyball to the warning track in right field, where Jared Hoying failed to make a grab. Koo advanced to third on the play, though the Wiz threw out Oh at second.
Jose Pirela drew a six-pitch walk to keep the rally going. He stole second base later in the inning to give the Lions two men in scoring position, but Cuevas struck out Lee Won-suk on a 2-2 cutter to end the inning on his 99th pitch of the game.
Likely sensing it was his last batter, Cuevas let out a primal scream on his way back to the dugout, while pumping his arms to send KT fans over the first base dugout into a frenzy.
Cuevas then took on the role of the biggest cheerleader, watching two relievers, Park Si-young and Kim Jae-yoon, combine for the final six outs to lock down a nail-biting win.
Cuevas himself didn't think he could go that deep into the game. He said his mindset was to go hard for a few early innings and let the bullpen do the rest.
He was surprised that his body was holding up so well for so long
"From the third inning and on, coaches checked to see how I was doing, and I kept telling them I was fine and I could keep pitching," Cuevas said. "I got an adrenaline rush and I have no idea where it came from. I pitched until the moment when it was no longer possible to go on."
Cuevas said he'd never started on two days' rest before in his career.
"Since we won today, we're going straight to the Korean Series (starting Nov. 14), and I'll have some time to rest," Cuevas said. "I gave everything I had and got the satisfying result."
Cuevas pitched through a personal tragedy this year. In August, his father passed away after contracting COVID-19 while visiting his son in South Korea.
Cuevas once again thanked his teammates for their show of support during difficult moments.
"I can't get into details, but since I lost my father, I've been feeling some powerful energy on the mound," the pitcher said. "I think it helped me out there today. I hope it will be the case again in the Korean Series."
Source: Yonhap News Agency