NC Dinos starting pitcher Eric Pedi, who led the team to a first-round playoff (PO) victory over KT Wiz, said this after the game on the 30th.
Pedi has been compared to former manager Sun Dong-yeol, a “national treasure pitcher,” throughout the season.
Peddie went 20-6 with a 2.00 ERA and 209 strikeouts in the regular season. The 20-win-200-strikeout feat was the first in 37 years since Sun Dong-yeol of the 1986 Hattae Tigers (24 wins, 214 strikeouts).
Pedi also became the fourth pitcher in the 42-year history of the Korean Professional Baseball Organization to achieve the “Pitcher’s Triple Crown” after Seon Dong-yeol (1986, 1989, 1990, 1991), Hanwha Eagles’ Ryu Hyun-jin (2006), and KIA Tigers’ Yoon Seok-min (2011).
In Game 1 of the PO, Sun Dong-yeol pitched six innings of three-hit ball (one home run) with 12 strikeouts and one walk.
The 12 strikeouts were the most in a single game in playoff history, as the previous record was 11 by Seon Dong-yeol (Hattae Tigers) in 1989 and Chris Flexen (Doosan Bears) in 2020.
“It’s an honor to be mentioned alongside great pitchers like Sun Dong-yeol,” Pedi said after the game, “and I’ll do my best to live up to that comparison.”
“I focused on resting to come back as healthy as possible,” said Pedi, who made his first start in two weeks with a forearm bruise, adding that he was grateful for the extra five days of rest after the team’s three-game sweep of SSG Landers (in the semifinals).
“I still have some discomfort on the nerves, but I’m in good enough shape to handle it, so I’m not too worried about it,” he said of his physical condition.
On holding KT’s Anthony Alford, who went 5-for-8 with two home runs against him in the regular season, scoreless, Peddy said, “I think he did a good job because he’s always won games in unfavorable pitch counts, but I think it paid off today because I was able to work the early pitches.”
“Before the postseason, I said, ‘Other teams won’t want to face us,’ and now we’re proving it,” Peddie said, adding, “We want to go all the way to the Korean Series without a problem.” 파워볼분석
