'May strikeout leader' despite historic advanced metrics, 7G consecutive no-decision misfortune; Ko Young-pyo instead apologized to the team, saying, "I should have thrown better pitches."

*This content was translated by AI.

KT Wiz's guardian Ko Young-pyo (35) expressed regret to the team for his first win in eight games.

On the 28th, Ko Young-pyo led KT to an 11-3 victory in a road game against the Doosan Bears at Seoul Jamsil Baseball Stadium during the 2026 Shinhan SOL KBO League regular season. He pitched 6 innings (95 pitches), allowing 8 hits, 2 walks, and 2 earned runs while recording 6 strikeouts.

With this win, KT secured a 2-1 series victory over Doosan and closed the gap to second-place LG Twins by just 0.5 games. For Ko Young-pyo personally, it was a meaningful game, marking his first win in 51 days and 8 games since the the 7th matchup against the Busan Lotte Giants.

After the game, Ko Young-pyo told reporters, "It always feels difficult to win as a starting pitcher, and it felt even harder this time since it's been a while. My game focus has been improving recently, so I tried to adjust my rhythm and timing on the mound as much as possible. My performance has been inconsistent lately, so I paid close attention to that aspect, which allowed me to last longer."

That day, Ko Young-pyo managed to hold his ground against Kwak Bin (27), who throws a fastball reaching up to 159 km/h, by using a slower pitch of up to 139 km/h. He threw a total of 95 pitches, including his primary weapon, the changeup (34 pitches), sinker (33 pitches), and curveball (28 pitches), inducing numerous groundouts. Ko Young-pyo responded, "When there were runners on base and I was in the set position, the velocity of my pitches dropped slightly in the early innings. I kept adjusting and successfully executed my changeups, and my curveballs also broke well."

This year, Ko Young-pyo has a 5.07 ERA in 10 games, which doesn't look good on the surface. However, looking at advanced metrics, he has recorded 55 innings with 10 walks and 64 strikeouts, ranking third in the league for strikeouts, surpassing many power pitchers. His May advanced metrics are historic. His WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) is 1.03, his strikeouts per 9 innings are 11.1 (first in the league), and his walks per 9 innings are 0.78 (second in the league). Despite outperforming many power pitchers, he recorded a 1-1 record with a 4.80 ERA over the month of May.

In a situation that could only be described as misfortune, the ace instead conveyed his apologies to catcher Han Seung-taek and his teammates. Ko Young-pyo stated firmly, "I've always felt sorry to (Han) Seung-taek. I need to throw good pitches for the catcher's pitch selection and synergy to work. If a pitcher's control or stuff isn't good, the catcher's pitch selection loses its meaning." He added, "Even today (the 28th), I threw 99% of the pitches based on Seung-taek's signs, and the results were good. So I want to say I'm sorry and grateful."

That day, Ko Young-pyo nearly failed to become the winning pitcher while the team was trailing 1-2. However, the position players rallied and scored 10 runs over 3 innings, supporting the ace's victory. Ko Young-pyo expressed his regret, saying, "I always try to be responsible, but there were many days I only pitched 5 innings. Even when I pitched 6 innings, I often gave up many runs, which was very tough. But it was even harder because it seemed like not just me, but my teammates and seniors were also struggling."

He continued, "I think the key to avoiding mental instability is to focus on myself, and that's probably the secret to gradual improvement. If I do well, I believe my teammates will benefit from that effect as well."

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*This content was translated by AI.