There are different ways that a team can reach the championship series in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO). And after experiencing a tough path last year and falling short of a title, Kiwoom Heroes left-hander Eric Jokisch wants to take the shortest route possible in 2023.
"The goal is to get first (place) and get the straight trip into the Korean Series," Jokisch told Yonhap News Agency on Tuesday before the Heroes faced the Doosan Bears at Jamsil Baseball Stadium in Seoul. "The team has put a lot into this season, with some new additions. Pretty clearly, our goal is to try to win it all this year."
In the 10-team KBO, the best team in the regular season advances directly to the Korean Series. The second-best club gets a direct ticket to the penultimate round of the postseason. The No. 3 team advances to the first round of the postseason, awaiting the winner of the wild card series between the fourth- and fifth-ranked clubs.
In 2022, the Heroes finished third in the regular season, and then knocked off the KT Wiz in a tough five-game series in the first round, and then eliminated the LG Twins in four games in the next stage just to reach the Korean Series.
The SSG Landers, by virtue of having the best regular season record, enjoyed more than three weeks off between their final regular season game and first Korean Series game. The Heroes played nine high-stress games in a 13-day span, and then got three days off before the start of the Korean Series.
The Heroes stole Game 1 on the road but ended up dropping the series in six games. Facing their most important games of the season, Heroes pitchers were running on fumes. Manager Hong Won-ki was left with so few viable options out of the bullpen that Jokisch, a career starter, was brought in to pitch in relief twice, including in the deciding Game 6.
Jokisch was charged with the loss in that game and he too didn't look as sharp as he had in the regular season, when he ranked fourth with 185 1/3 innings pitched, sixth with a 2.57 ERA and eighth with 154 strikeouts. He threw 21 1/3 more innings across three postseason rounds.
"I think we all know how tired we can get (by the Korean Series), especially pitchers," Jokisch said. "Obviously, everybody's tired at that point, but to get a couple of weeks of rest for the pitchers, it would just be a huge help.
And you see how many No. 1 seeds have won the championship. It's a big advantage and it's something that we need to shoot for."
Indeed, 19 out of the past 20 Korean Series titles, including the last four in a row, have gone to the top regular season teams.
Jokisch has been one of the KBO's top starters since arriving here in 2019. From 2019 to 2022, he ranks first among qualified starters in ERA (2.71), first in opponents' on-base plus slugging (.622), second in innings (707 2/3), second in starts (118), third in wins (51) and third in strikeouts (541). He and LG Twins starter Casey Kelly are currently the longest-serving foreign players in the KBO, now in their fifth season.
"I've accomplished a decent amount individually through the course of the (regular) season," Jokisch said. "But the goal is to win it all."
The Heroes are off to a sluggish start to 2023, though, having lost five straight games to fall to 3-6 after nine games, eighth place among 10 clubs through Wednesday's action.
Jokisch himself hasn't been on top of his game this year. He has two no-decisions after two starts, over which he has allowed a combined six earned runs on 14 hits in 10 innings.
Though the sample size is small, this could be the case of hitters getting ahead early in the constant cat-and-mouse game.
"(There are) little tweaks that I do every year, and I try to come in with a little different approach on guys. But mainly, it comes down to executing pitches," Jokisch said. "If you make good quality pitches, you're usually going to be successful."
Jokisch rejected the notion that he has been figured out by opposing hitters, pointing to South Korean-born pitchers, such as Kim Kwang-hyun of the SSG Landers, who has enjoyed sustained success here for over a decade.
"Some of these other guys have had success their whole, long careers," Jokisch said. "Right now, I'm just not throwing the ball that well. I don't think it's really necessarily (hitters') approach. I'm just needing to make more quality pitches."
Source: Yonhap News Agency