NC’s ace Pedi continued his dominant performance in the postseason following the regular season.
On April 30, Pedi started the first game of the 2023 Shinhan Bank SOL KBO Postseason Playoffs (PO) against KT at KT Wiz Park in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, and pitched six innings of three-hit ball, striking out 12 and walking one. NC won the game 9-5 thanks to Pedi’s performance.
For his stellar performance, Pedi was honored as the Daily MVP (Most Valuable Player) of PO Game 1. “My batters got a lot of runs early in the game, which helped us win,” he said after the game.
It was his first action in two weeks after being knocked out by a hard hit to the right arm against the Gwangju KIA on April 16, but he was still in good shape. “I’ve been focusing on rest to get back as healthy as possible,” Pedi said, adding that the team’s winning streak helped him rest.
After finishing the regular season in fourth place this year, NC was considered a relative underdog in the postseason. However, the team has been on a steep climb, having won five games heading into today’s match following a wild card berth.
“Every player on NC is playing with the mindset of winning,” said Pedi, adding, “We were underdogs, but we’ve won five games in a row, and I think we’ll have no problem making it to the Korean Series.”
Against KT Alford (5-for-8), a team he struggled against during the regular season, he struck out two and walked one. “During the season, I battled with Alford in unfavorable counts, but today, I was just trying to get a hold of him early and move on,” Peddie said.
During the game, he was very vocal in his protests to the umpires. In the bottom of the fifth inning, with the bases loaded and no outs, Moon Sang-chul was called out for a balk. Fortunately, NC coach Kang Myung-hwa quickly came out of the dugout and blocked the umpire.
“I thought it was a competitive game because it was the first game,” he said of the situation. “The coach came out and calmed me down, and I knew that umpiring is a difficult job, so I regained my composure right away,” he said.
Pedi struck out a whopping 12 batters on the day, breaking the all-time PO record for most strikeouts in a single game. The previous records were 11 by Sun Dong-yeol (Haetae) in Game 3 against Pacific on October 17, 1989 in Incheon and 11 by Flexen (Doosan) in Game 1 against KT on November 9, 2020 in Gocheok.
In the regular season, Pedi also set several records like the “legendary” Sun Dong-yeol. He won the pitching triple crown of wins (20), ERA (2.00), and strikeouts (209) and achieved the 20-win-200-strikeout feat.
This earned him the nickname “Sun 토토사이트 Dong-yeol, the Foreigner. “I’ve heard a lot about him, so I’m familiar with him, and I’m trying to be a little bit like him,” Peddie said.
“It was definitely a packed house, and I felt blessed to be playing baseball,” he said of his first fall baseball game.