KT Wiz ace William Cuevas tossed six innings of shutout baseball to secure a Game One victory over the Doosan Bears. The two teams will now square off in a win-or-go-home second contest on Thursday.
Cuevas completely neutralized a Bears offense that averaged nearly 5.5 runs per game in the regular season, allowing only four hits while striking out nine. The dominant outing only added to Cuevas’ reputation as one of the KBO’s best big-game pitchers, as he entered the game with a 3-1 record and 2.87 ERA in postseason play.
KT's @willcuevas1 proving he's made for the post season with another gem. Cuevas pitched 6 scoreless innings, giving up only 4 hits while striking out 9 enroute to the 4-0 upset win over Doosan in Wild Card Game 1. The Wiz will try to be the first 5th seed team to advance. https://t.co/EtyHz2gm74
— Dan Kurtz (@MyKBO) October 2, 2024
Cuevas would get all the run support he would need when the Wiz scored four in the first inning against Bears ace Gwak Been. A leadoff walk by Kim Min-hyeok was followed by four straight singles to plate three runs, and Bae Dong-jae tacked on one more with a two-out single to center field.
It was a shocking result for Gwak, who had gone 5-1 with a 1.51 ERA against the Wiz this year. The right-hander would last just one inning days after pitching the Bears into the postseason with six shutout innings against the Lotte Giants. The Bears bullpen kept their offense in the game with eight shutout innings of relief, but with Cuevas on top of his game, the damage had already been done.
The Bears will now attempt to avoid becoming the first No. 4 seed to be eliminated in the wild-card stage. They will hand the ball to Choi Seung-yung in Game Two, a 23-year-old left-hander who was one of their best pitchers in 2023 but had a 6.00 ERA in six starts in 2024. The red-hot Wiz, meanwhile, will look to finish off the upset by handing the ball to 11-game winner Wes Benjamin.
First pitch at Jasmil Baseball Stadium will be at 11 p.m. EDT time on Wednesday, as the Korean peninsula is 13 hours ahead.
Photo: William Cuevas of KT Wiz pitches in the first inning during the first baseball game of the Korean Series between Doosan Bears and KT Wiz at Gocheok Skydome in Seoul on November 14, 2021. (Photo by Jung Yeon-je / AFP) (Photo by JUNG YEON-JE/AFP via Getty Images)
