SEOUL– In the first all-Cuban starting pitching matchup in South Korean postseason baseball history, Odrisamer Despaigne of the KT Wiz outdueled Ariel Miranda of the Doosan Bears for a 3-1 win in Game 3 of the Korean Series on Wednesday.
While giving the Wiz a commanding 3-0 series lead, Despaigne was a model of efficiency in this game. He threw just 69 pitches over 5 2/3 shutout innings at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul, and gave up only two singles and two walks. He also struck out four.
Despaigne retired the first five batters he faced on groundouts, before giving up a single and a walk with two outs in the second. But he got himself of the jam by getting Park Sei-hyok to line out to first base.
And Despaigne cruised over the next three innings. He picked up his first two strikeouts of the game in the third, and had another in the three-up, three-down fourth inning. He threw only eight pitches to get three outs in the fifth.
With one out in the sixth, Jung Soo-bin singled off Despaigne to break the string of consecutive batters retired at 11.
Despaigne got the second out of the inning with help from second baseman Park Kyung-su, who is enjoying an excellent series with both the bat and the glove. When Park Kun-woo chopped a grounder toward the hole between first and second, the second baseman quickly ranged over to his left and fired a strike to second base to get the speedy Jung out.
Despaigne’s night was finished after a walk issued to Jose Miguel Fernandez. With the left-handed slugger Kim Jae-hwan coming to the plate, lefty specialist Jo Hyun-woo took over from Despaigne, and promptly struck out Kim on three pitches.
The Wiz were clinging to a 1-0 lead then, but they added a pair of runs in the top seventh en route to a 3-1 win.
Miranda more than acquitted himself with five innings of one-run ball. Showing no effects of the shoulder issues that had sidelined him since Oct. 24, Miranda struck out six and gave up five hits.
But one of those hits was Park Kyung-su’s solo home run in the top fifth. On a night when Despaigne was on top of his game, that was plenty enough to make the difference.
Despaigne threw 46 of his 69 pitches for strikes. He offered six different types of pitches, relying most heavily on a two-seam fastball with 35. He touched 154 kilometers per hour with that pitch.
Despaigne has often had trouble controlling his emotion on the mound. Moments before Game 3, his catcher, Jang Sung-woo, told reporters that Despaigne, given his talent, would do well as long as he could stay composed on the mound.
And that’s exactly what Despaigne did Wednesday, and now the Wiz sit just a win away from their first-ever Korean Series trophy.
KT manager Lee Kang-chul quipped after the game that he had rarely seen Despaigne so calm and collected during a game. And the pitcher himself attributed his strong outing to a year-long preparation.
“I wasn’t happy with my performance during last year’s postseason, and I was determined to do better when I would next have the opportunity to pitch this time of year,” Despaigne said, referring to an outing against the Bears last year when he gave up four runs on seven hits in four innings. “I began my preparation for this opportunity since last year. It’s a privilege to start in a game of this magnitude, and mentally and physically, I tried to give my very best.”
Lee wondered if Despaigne hadn’t been inspired by Game 1 winner William Cuevas, who tossed 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball in a 6-1 victory on Sunday. Despaigne said he has been fueled by the success of all of his teammates, not just Cuevas.
“I am the oldest starter on our team, so I wanted to do my part,” the 34-year-old cracked. “My infielders were unbelievable today. I just concentrated on throwing strikes and had confidence that they would catch everything behind me.”
Following Despaigne’s win, three KT starters so far have combined for 19 1/3 innings of one-run pitching in this series.
Source: Yonhap News Agency