Foreign pitcher Eric Peddie (30-NC Dinos) is on an “epic” winning pace.
Pedi picked up his 15th win of the season on Aug. 8 against the Incheon SSG Landers. He extended his lead over the second-most-wins group (Wes Benjamin-Adam Plutko), which has 11 wins, to four, and moved one step closer to becoming the second most-wins player in NC franchise history, eight years after Eric Hacker in 2015.
As impressive as the wins are, the pace is even more impressive. Pedi’s 15 wins in just his 19th start of the season tied the KBO’s all-time record for fewest wins in 15 games set by Kim Il-young (then of the Samsung Lions) in 1985. That year, Kim won 10 games as a starter and five more out of the bullpen to reach the 15-win plateau. Pedi’s record is more “pure” in that he won 15 games as a starter.
In addition, Pedi surpassed both Park Chul-soon “Phoenix” (1982 – OB Bears) and Jang Myung-bu “Raccoon” (1983 – Sammi Superstars), who both won 15 games in 20 games. Park won 22 games in a row in 1982 and Jang won 30 games in the 1983 season. It’s a good indication of how good Pedi is.
It’s not all luck, either. His ERA is 1.97, the only one in the 1-run range among the 21 pitchers who pitched a full game. After giving up five runs in four innings against the Busan Lotte Giants on April 2, his ERA jumped from 1.74 to 2.10. It seemed natural that his pace would slow down as his stamina was steadily accumulating.
However, before the SSG, NC coach Kang In-hwa expressed his opinion that Pedi’s performance was a temporary slump. “I could see that his grip on his changeup was a little different (against Lotte), so I corrected that part,” Kang said. “He had some blisters on his fingers, so it was a little deformed without his knowledge, but he corrected it again when he pitched in the bullpen.” Pedi lived up to his manager’s expectations, throwing seven scoreless innings. With a two-seam fastball that reached up to 154 km/h, he earned the decision against SSG ace Kim Kwang-hyun (six innings, one run).
20 wins in a season is achievable. The last KBO player to win 20 games in a season was Raul Alcantara (Doosan Bears) in 2020. Alcantara became the 21st player in history to reach the milestone, but Pedi has his sights set on breaking the record for most wins by a foreign pitcher in a season (22), which was set by Daniel Rios in 2007 and Dustin Nippert in 2016 (both with Doosan).메이저사이트
“Obviously, I want to have a sub-1 ERA. I want to keep it under one,” he said, adding, “I’ve been working hard every day. In fact, as we saw in the Lotte game, I think a pitcher can break down at any time. Right now, I want to think about 16 wins before 20,” he said.