For pitchers, “wins” are not a metric that can be recorded solely on their own. No matter how well they pitch, they still need to score runs to be considered a “winner”.

As sabermetrics have evolved, wins have become less and less important, but they still mean a lot. Pitchers themselves become conscious if they repeatedly fail to pitch well and accumulate wins, which eventually leads to psychological pressure.

In the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, which has been running for 30 days now, there are some pitchers who are not getting much support from the offense. Ahn Woo-jin (24-Keum Heroes) and Koo Chang-mo (26-NC Dinos), who are the native aces of their teams and are often considered the ‘young guns’ of the league, are the protagonists.

After becoming one of the league’s leading starters last year, Ahn has continued his momentum this season. In 10 games so far, he has pitched 62⅓ innings with a 1.88 ERA and 81 strikeouts. Her innings pitched and ERA are second in the league, and her strikeouts are first.

However, he only has three wins and three losses. That’s because the batters couldn’t score runs.

In games where Ahn has pitched, the Kiwoom offense has scored fewer than three runs, with a 2.89 OPS. That’s the third-lowest run support among the 28 pitchers who pitched in regulation.

Only Choi Won-jun (Doosan Bears – 1.96) and Bo Schuler (KT Wiz – 2.72) had less run support than Ahn. However, their ERAs are 4.30 (Choi) and 5.62 (Schuler), so it’s hard to blame their bats.

Ahn hasn’t gotten much help from the bullpen either. In 10 appearances this season, the bullpen has already blown three wins by allowing the tying run to score. Ahn is the only pitcher in the league with three “bullpen fires”.

Kiwoom has struggled this season as the offense as a whole has slumped. In addition to Ahn, other pitchers have also had their fair share of disappointing games despite pitching well.

Kiwoom’s other starters, Choi Won-tae, has only managed 3.02 runs per game, while Ariel Hurtado has received 3.26 runs of run support. With the fourth and fifth lowest “salty support” in the league, Choi is 3-3 with a 3.32 ERA, while Hurado is 3-6 with a 2.97 ERA.

In eight games so far, Koo has pitched 46⅔ innings with a 3.28 ERA, but only one win and three losses.

After struggling in his first two games, Koo has since rebounded, but hasn’t received much offensive support. 메이저놀이터

On April 15, he pitched 8⅔ scoreless innings against the SSG Landers, but was unable to pick up a win because his batting average was “0”. On April 27 against the KIA Tigers, he had a perfect game until the top of the sixth inning, but the 0-0 tie was broken by a large number of runs without any batting support.

At this point, you might think that Ahn’s case is similar to Woo-jin’s, but there is a subtle difference. It’s the team batting order.

While Ahn’s team Kiwoom is ranked 8th with a team batting average of 0.247, Goo Chang-mo’s NC is ranked 2nd with a team batting average of 0.268 and 5th in team runs scored.

Koo’s woes are best explained by his NC teammate, Eric Pedi. Peddy has been the best pitcher in the league so far with a 1.47 ERA, but he’s also gotten a lot of support from his offense.

In his 10 starts, the offense has scored an average of 9.25 runs per game, second only to Wes Benjamin (KT Wiz – 10.08). In three games already, the game was decided by a big inning before the fifth inning: against KT on April 9 (16-4), Samsung Lions on April 20 (14-3), and Hanwha Eagles on April 26 (11-0).

With only one-third of the support that Pedi received, Koo Chang-mo may be feeling resentful of his teammates.